New York notes

The thick blanket of snow that covered Manhattan will not cause any problems for Sultan Ibragimov ahead of Saturday night's IBF-WBO world heavyweight title eliminator against Wladimir Klitschko at Madison Square Garden. "Where he's from in Russia is in the mountains," Boris Grinberg, his manager, said. "It's cold there too."

Anyone looking for the secret to how boxers from the former Soviet Union now dominate the heavyweight division, should look at the strength of their amateur system. Klitschko won the super-heavyweight gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, Ibragimov was an unlucky loser to Felix Savon, the great Cuban, in the heavyweight final at the Sydney Games in 2000.

"At my weight there were six or seven boxers who were good enough to go to the Olympics," Ibragimov, 32, said. "I had to win five fights to win the Russian championships before I got to go."

In fact, according to Grinberg, the Russian selectors had not even been looking at Ibragimov. "He went to the camp just as a sparring partner," he said. "But then he beat the No 1, the No 2 and the No 3 guys, so they had to pick him."

There is not an obvious unification bout available for Saturday's winner, who could be due for mandatory defences of both titles. Alexander Povetkin, the 2004 Olympic super-heavyweight champion from Russia, is mandatory for the IBF title, while Tony Thompson, a largely unproven 36-year-old from Washington DC, is the WBO's mandatory contender.

Even if the winner was not tied up with mandatories, neither of the other titles are available.

Ruslan Chagaev, the WBA champion, is looking to defend against Luan Krasniqi in Stuttgart in May, the same arena where he won the title from Nikolay Valuev. Krasniqi, who has lost to Thompson, pulled out of a bout with Matt Skelton for the vacant European title to take the chance. Skelton is now likely to be facing Sinan Samil Sam, who is now promoted by Arena, the up-and-coming German promoters, who lost a WBC eliminator to Oliver McCall last year.

Valuev also earned the chance for a rematch with Chagaev by beating Sergei Liakhovich last weekend.

The WBC champion is Oleg Maskaev, who is due to face Samuel Peter, the interim champion from Nigeria, on March 8 in Cancun, Mexico. Should he win that, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir's older brother is waiting in the wings in his position as emeritus champion, despite having been inactive since 2004.

"Vitali's fit and well and just waiting for the winner of next month's fight in Mexico," Bernd Boente, Klitschko's manager, said. Klitschko retired after suffering a knee injury, having previously suffered badly with back injuries. A comeback fight last September in Munich was scrapped after he slipped a disc in his back.