Story & Photo by Nino Celic | Thu. Dec. 9, 2010

December is shaping up as a bad month for German boxing fans. First, European titlist Alexander Dimitrenko fainted in his locker room prior to his fight with former Vitali Klitschko-challenger Albert Sosnowski.

Then news broke of the cancellation of the Wladimir Klitschko-Dereck Chisora fight, making it the second big set back in less than seven days.

During his Wednesday afternoon workout Klitschko tore an abdominal muscle, leaving him unable to train for the next 4-6 weeks. Klitschko said he felt deeply sorry for all his fans, and he hopes to return to the ring early in 2011. The Ukrainian champion said Chisora was still his first priority for a spring date, but wasn’t fully dismissive of a David Haye fight in April.

“There is a couple of names to talk about,” said Klitschko. “There is Dereck Chisora, there is David Haye, and possibly also Tomasz Adamek. 2011 is going to be an interesting year.”

WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Jürgen Brähmer will fight WBA World Champion Beibut Shumenov on Jan. 8 in Shumenov's home country, Kazakhstan. Brähmer was initially supposed to fight WBO mandatory Nathan Cleverly in his next fight, but chose to go for the title unification instead. The fight promises to be an match-up of styles: Shumenov is a face first all-action brawler, while southpaw Brähmer is a good counter-puncher and possesses a sneaky left hand.