Dimitrenko vs. Pulev on March 31st for vacant EBU heavyweight title

By Boxing News - 02/29/2012 - Comments

Image: Dimitrenko vs. Pulev on March 31st for vacant EBU heavyweight titleBy Jim Dower: Two giant heavyweights Alexander Dimitrenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) and Kubrat Pulev (15-0, 7 KO’s) will be fighting it out for the vacant European Boxing Union (EBU) heavyweight title on March 31st at the Sparkhassen-Arena, in Scheleswig-Holstein, Germany. Also on the card will be a fight between Arthur Abraham and Piotr Wilczewski in super middleweight action.

Dimitrenko, 29, has a lot more experience in the professional level compared to the 30-year-old Pulev and that could come into play for this fight. Both guys are really big heavyweights. Pulev, 6’4 1/2″ 251 compared to the 6’7″ 250 Dimitrenko. Pulev has fought some big heavyweights before, beating 6’4 1/2″ Travis Walker, 6’4 1/2″ Maksym Pediura, 6’4″ Yaroslav Zavorotnyi, and 6’9″ Evgeny Orlov. However, none of those fighters had nearly the same talent as the 6’7″ Dimitrenko, so the experience is pretty much useless for Pulev.

Dimitrenko has looked good as of late beating Michael Sprott, Albert Sosnowski and Zavorotnyi in his last three fights after losing a 12 round majority decision to American Eddie Chambers in July 2009. Dimitrenko made the mistake of trying to fight Chambers in close in that fight and also by going to the robes and just covering up instead of holding. Dimitrenko looks a lot better now but he’s still very flawed and can be beaten if a heavyweight is aggressive and takes the fight to him the way that Chambers did.

Pulev has also looked decent in beating his opposition recently, stopping Sprott and giving Travis Walker a beating in winning a 12 round unanimous decision. Pulev doesn’t have a lot of power despite being a huge fighter weighing over 250lbs. What he does to make up for his lack of power is to throw a lot of jabs and a lot of right hands. He kind of wears his opponents down with his size and his business. Having a guy that big landing a of shots has a debilitating effect on fighters.

Dimitrenko can win this fight if he uses his legs and moves around the ring a lot while jabbing frequently. Pulev’s jab isn’t nearly as good as Dimitrenko’s and he’s got slow feet. Dimitrenko has a clear advantage in those areas. But Dimitrenko is going to have to resist the temptation to try and fight Pulev in close or to try and slug with him because Dimitrenko doesn’t have the greatest chin and he tends to get hurt if he’s hit a lot.



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