Klitschko, whose future had been in doubt for several months announced that his political fighter, for the freedom of Ukrainian citizens, was more important to him at the present moment than his fight to be a Heavyweight champion. Thankfully for "Dr Ironfist" the WBC were happy to accommodate Klitschko by giving him the "Emeritus" title allowing him to concentrate on his political fight with the chance to return to a WBC world title fight down the road.
This is the second time Vitali has been the WBC Emeritus champion having also held the position between beating Danny Williams in 2004 and returning to action in 2008 against Samuel Peter. During that time injuries had plagued Kitschko's body which needed time and a break to recover. This time however there is almost no chance that he will be returning to the ring.
Aged 42 and having spent 15 months out of the ring it appears the only fights left for Klitschko are his political ones.
As a result of Klitschko's change in status this leaves the WBC world title vacant. This could see several interesting possibilities.
First we know that Bermane Stiverne is the WBC #1 ranked fighter and the Silver title holder. A fight between Stiverne and Deontay Wilder (#3) would certainly be a fighter that would be explosive and a lot of fun. If this bout was made for the full WBC title there would be few complaints.
Rather than just making Stiverne/Wilder for the WBC title a second option would be to have those two men match up in an eliminator with Chris Arreola (#2) fighting Bryant Jennings (#4) in another eliminator with the winners facing off. Of course this could actually be extend to an 8 man tournament if the WBC chose to include Mike Perez (#5), Dereck Chisora (#6), Manuel Charr (#7) and Tyson Fury (#8). This may not be a quick fix but it would certainly add a lot of excitement to the Heavyweight division if 8 of the top challengers were forced to fight off for the right to call themselves a world champion.