Klitschko to defend title
Heavyweight champion Vladmir Klitschko will make his first defence of his International Boxing Federation title against American Calvin Brock on November 11 in New York.
The Ukrainian won the title in April when he beat American Chris Byrd by TKO in Germany.
“I feel I’m at my best age and best experienced time in my career,” the 30-year-old said.
“This fight will be the 10th anniversary of my professional career. I think I’ve got a lot of knowledge about professional boxing. I’ve learned from success and failure. It’s amazing, I feel young.”
Brock, who has a 29-0 record with 22 knock outs, is a year older than Klitschko but the American known as the “Boxing Banker” due to previously training as a bank management is confident.
“If I hit him right, I can knock him out and I will,” Brock said.
But Klitschko, 46-1 with 43 wins within the distance, said his goal was to unify the titles.
The former 1996 gold medalist is one of four champions from the former Soviet Union who hold a title in the fractured heavyweight division.
Russian Nikolai Valuev is the World Boxing Association champion, Sergei Liakhovich of Belarus is the World Boxing Organisation holder, and Oleg Maskaev, who was born in Kazakhstan and became a U.S. citizen two years ago, holds the World Boxing Council version.
Klitschko said his camp had tried to arrange a match against Maskaev or Liakhovich but could not complete a deal.
“I think the guys are interested,” Klitschko said. “But unfortunately that doesn’t mean anything because the promoters are wheelers and dealers.”