Wladimir Klitschko vs Alex Leapai agreed to for April in Germany

Wladimir Klitschko has agreed to terms and avoided a January 19 purse bid to face Alex Leapai this April in Germany, a sort of return to the scrap heap for Klitschko, who has run out of worthy challengers for the most part.

Leapai (30-4-3, 24 KO) fought his way into this bout with a November upset of Denis Boytsov, but it's hard to imagine the 34-year-old Samoan-Australian having any real chance at doing what so many other similar or better fighters have not come close to doing in about a decade now. He's a decent fighter and the win over Boytsov was convincing, and this is a better opponent than, say, Jean-Marc Mormeck was, but Klitschko (61-3, 51 KO) really takes no risk with this fight.

Leapai, known as "The Lionheart," is a six-foot-tall battler who's been fighting around 245 pounds in his recent outings. He's got a 75-inch reach and there's really nothing special about him. He's not really fast, he's not a particularly good boxer, he's a good but not huge puncher, and with Klitschko, the key is actually getting to him. How can Leapai do that? Chances are, he cannot.

This is a major mismatch on paper, like many of Wladimir's fights anymore. It's really nothing against Leapai, he's just not this level of fighter. But this is what's next for Wlad.
badlefthook.com