Klitschko had no real choice but to pull out of his bout with Mormeck

Following his stay in hospital for an operation on a kidney stone, Wladimir Klitschko has been forced to pull out of his WBA/WBO/IBF heavyweight title fight with Jean-Marc Mormeck this Saturday in Düsseldorf.

Initially Klitschko’s team said the fight would still go ahead but Klitschko was said to be in ‘extreme pain’ following the operation and sensibly called the fight off.

Klitschko was admitted to hospital on Friday, and the 35 year-old Ukrainian then had an operation to remove a kidney stone Saturday, but was re-admitted on Sunday with abdominal pain.

Scheduled to appear on a German TV show, brother Vitali had to make apologies for his absent brother, saying he was too ill to attend and had returned to hospital.

“Wladimir is sad, devastated, but he again feels extreme pain,” said his manager Bernd Boent.

A press conference is still scheduled for later today and Klitschko is expected to attend, but it’s a bitter blow for him and it’s certain nobody will be more disappointed than Dr. Steelhammer himself, even though he was expected to defeat Mormeck convincingly.

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