As a thorough medical examination showed, it was a meniscus injury of the right knee joint. The doctor who examined Vitali in principle did not object to his entering the ring, recommending only that he use a tight bandage on the knee, however Klitschko himself decided that his condition did not allow him to conduct the fight next week. The executives of the Top Rank company promise to announce the date to which the duel is postponed in a few days.
Meanwhile, Hasim Rahman, who flew in on Saturday from his training camp in Oregon to Las Vegas, where his fight against Vitali Klitschko was supposed to take place, upon learning that the fight with Klitschko would not take place, accused the Ukrainian of cowardice:
"All year he has been running from me. This cannot be a coincidence. Without having the championship belt, I behaved more like a champion than he did... He refused the fight four times. This is simply unheard of!", Rahman stated in an interview with ESPN.com, adding that rumors had reached him that the elder Klitschko was so poorly prepared for the fight that his own sparring partners were beating him.
Rahman's promoter Don King also went on the offensive after this news, declaring his charge the new WBC heavyweight champion because, in his opinion, Klitschko by his refusal effectively made the belt of this organization vacant. "Everyone can confirm that Vitali does not want to meet with Rahman," said King. "That is precisely why I achieved that Rahman's last duel was for the title of interim WBC champion. At the moment when Vitali canceled the mandatory defense of the WBC heavyweight title scheduled for November 12, he made this title vacant, and Rahman, in accordance with WBC rules, immediately took possession of it."
"I would have preferred that Rahman and Klitschko settle their differences in the ring next week, but, judging by everything, no one has the power to force Vitali to conduct a mandatory title defense against Rahman. It seems he preferred to give up his title rather than meet with Rahman," King added.
Rahman himself also hopes that the WBC will declare him the new champion according to its version, based on a conversation with the president of this organization, Jose Sulaiman, in which the latter assured Rahman that if the fight with Klitschko is once again postponed through Klitschko's fault, the title will pass to Rahman. King's lawyer Judd Burstein has already sent the WBC a letter maintained in a sarcastic tone, in which he accused Klitschko of faking and asked that he be stripped of his title on the grounds that he does not meet the requirements that the WBC sets for its champions.