Wach: After sparring with Povetkin I believe I’ll be heavyweight champion of the world

By Dan Ambrose: Big 6’7″ heavyweight fringe contender hopeful Mariusz Wach (25-0, 13 KO’s) says that it was a sparring session that he had with heavyweight contender Alexander Povetkin that makes him believe that he can become a heavyweight champion of the world.

Wach, 31, sparred with Povetkin to get ready for Wach’s bout with 38-year-old 6’6″ 296 pound Kevin McBride last Friday night. Wach controlled the flabby looking McBride and took him out with a chopping right hand to the head that left McBride flat on his back, out cold.

“Povetkin is a strong fighter with good power, but this helped affirm my belief that I can contend with the best boxers in the world,” Wach said in an interview at bokser.org. “I believe I will be the heavyweight champion of the world soon.”

I think Wach needs to downsize his goals and focus on just being a good fringe contender rather than worrying about becoming a world champion. I saw Wach’s fight against McBride, and I didn’t see anything of either of these two fighters that would suggest that they belong in the top tier, let alone one of them becoming champion of the world.

I think Wach has good size and seems to be in great condition. However, the hand speed is missing. It’s like he’s got an absence of fast twitch nerve fiber in his upper body because he’s so slow, and he doesn’t appear to be a really big puncher either. Wach can punch a little when throwing looping right hands, but I don’t know of anyone poor enough on defense for him to land those big slow shots.

It takes too long for Wach’s excruciatingly slow punches to get to the target and any halfway decent fighter will either move out of the way or get their guard up by the time Wach’s slow shots arrive at their target destination. Wach doesn’t have much of a left hand and his straight right looks weak. No, I can’t see Wach ever winning a world title, even after both of the Klitschko brothers retire from the sport. He’s too slow.

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