Klitschko vs Chisora: Vitali Suffered Shoulder Injury, Plans to Fight in September

Vitali Klitschko suffered a "small rupture of a ligament in his left shoulder" during Saturday's win over Dereck Chisora in Munich, according to a Klitschko spokesman in a report at ESPN.com, but plans to fight again in September. Surgery will apparently not be necessary.

Dittrich said Klitschko was examined at a Munich hospital after the fight but it "showed that surgery seems not to be needed."

Instead Klitschko will use physical therapy to rehabilitate the shoulder. However, it does throw his planned schedule off course. Klitschko had planned to fight three times this year with a June fight followed by another fight in the fall.

Klitschko (44-2, 40 KO) pretty much abandoned his jab during the fight, turning him almost exclusively into a right-hand puncher for much of the bout, a fact that will perhaps lead to some thinking that Chisora (15-3, 9 KO) did not look quite as good as maybe was believed before, but injuries are a reality and Chisora still fought well all things considered.

At 40, Vitali probably doesn't have a lot of fights left, though he will indeed fight on. Given his injury history and his age, plus just his body type, it's inevitable that little things like this will add up and likely begin to affect his performances. It's not to say he's not still a very good fighter, but he's definitely getting up there, and this sort of thing is more likely to become a repeated issue than it is to just go away.

[ Who Does Klitschko Face Next? ]

Let's forget for a second about who can or can't fight VItali for various reasons: Who do you want to see him face next? And don't say his brother. ("Why not?") Because.