Promoter Don King has accused WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko of ducking Hasim Rahman after the fight was postponed for the fourth time.
Klitschko suffered a sprained right knee while sparring in Los Angeles on Thursday but could not respond to medical treatment and a fitted brace in practice on Saturday.
Promoter Bob Arum has announced that the fight will be rescheduled. It marks the fourth time Klitschko has postponed the fight in the past seven months.
The 34-year-old pulled out of the first scheduled fight with Rahman in April with a thigh injury and later had two arranged bouts put off due to a back injury.
A former unified champion, Rahman chose to fight Monte Barrett in August and scored a convincing unanimous decision to claim the WBC interim title and force Klitschko into a mandatory challenge.
Rahman promoter Don King claims Klitschko is “ducking” Rahman and that the title belongs to his man.
“Anyone could tell that Vitali did not want to fight Rock (Rahman),” King said in a statement.
“This is why I lobbied for Rock’s last fight to be for the WBC interim heavyweight title. The moment Vitali cancelled his mandatory defence scheduled for November 12, he vacated his title and Rahman immediately assumed his crown according to the rules and regulations of the WBC.”
The WBC has yet to make such an announcement but Rahman believes it will.
“I told WBC president Jose Sulaiman when I became their interim heavyweight champion in August by defeating Monte Barrett that I did not think Vitali would fight me,” the 32-year-old Rahman said.
"Mr Sulaiman said that if he pulled out of the fight, he would declare me the WBC champion.”