Klitschko vows to unite heavyweight titles

Wladimir Klitschko promised to unify all the heavyweight titles as soon as possible after adding the WBO crown to his IBF and IBO belts at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Ukrainian Klitschko earned a unanimous decision (119-110, 117-111, 118-110) over Russia's Sultan Ibragimov in the first heavyweight unification fight since 1999.

That left WBA champion Ruslan Chagaev of Russia and the winner of next month's WBC title showdown in Mexico between Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev as obstacles to Klitschko achieving heavyweight domination.

With older brother Vitali Klitschko on the comeback trail and having been promised a match with the winner of Maskaev-Peter, that leaves Chagaev as the next realistic target.

"I'm ready to fight again as soon as possible," Klitschko said. "I fought 12 rounds just but I didn't get hurt and I wish I could get another champion.

"Next month we have Samuel Peter and Oleg Maskaev fighting so we'll see what's happening there but my brother Vitali will be stepping in so we'll let him handle it.

"The WBA situation is Chagaev fighting somebody so we'll see if we get a chance to unify all the titles."

Klitschko praised Ibragimov for putting his title on the line when he was under no obligation to do so.

"I want to say thank you to Sultan Ibragimov for taking this fight because boxing fans are tired of all the sports politicians and all the talk about unification that never came," Klitschko said.

"We made this happen and it's great for the sport first of all. The heavyweight division needs an undisputed champion, we need a person to carry this title."

Both Klitschko and Ibragimov were booed throughout the fight as they failed to give the 14,011 crowd any real fireworks over 12 rounds.

The victor was disappointed he had not been able to win with more style.

"I wanted to win this fight as impressively as possible but it was difficult," Klitschko said. "He is a very difficult opponent and his defensive style didn't make it easy to be impressive."

Asked about his reliance on using the left jab against Ibragimov while keeping his right under wraps for most of the fight, Klitschko said: "I had to make sure I would land them.

"If I would miss, I would lose the balance and it's hard to get back.

"I thought I was going to knock this guy out but it wasn't easy. I know you're not satisfied, but I have to keep the belts and knock everybody else out."

Ibragimov revealed he had been carrying a hand injury for the past three weeks after suffering what his manager Boris Grinberg described as a "bone trauma" when his fist struck a sparring partner's forehead during his training camp.

"I had a problem with my left hand and in the fight I felt I had to be stronger," Ibragimov said.

"But Wladimir was faster than I thought he would be.

"We watched old Klitschko fights but he was much faster today than in any of those. He was different and that made it difficult to stick to our plan."