By Allan Fox: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KO’s) will be defending his titles against unbeaten German based fringe contender Francesco Pianeta (28-0-1, 15 KO’s) on May 4th at the SAP-Arena, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
This will be an optional defense for the 36-year-old Wladimir, and it’s not considered to be a competitive fight despite the 6’5” Pianeta sporting an impressive unbeaten resume. The problem is the types of fighters that Pianeta has faced have been generally B and C level in talent, and it looks as if his management wasn’t in any kind of hurry to put him in with anyone that could possibly beat him.
In that respect, Pianeta’s matchmaking mirrors that of another German based fighter by the name of Manuel Charr, who fought largely weak opposition in the process of building up an inflated record until he was picked out by WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko last year and easily beaten.
The 28-year-old southpaw Pianeta has very little power to speak of and he mostly slaps his punches, and he gets hit a lot in his fights. He moves slowly, and fights in an almost lazy manner.
Pianeta has really struggled against some of the C level opponents he’s faced; for example, he had problems in fights against Oliver McCall, Zack Page and Albert Sosnowski. He appeared to lose to all three of them, yet was still given division victories.
Pianeta said to thesun.co.uk “I was briefly Klitschko’s sparring partner last year and I noted where his weaknesses are and how best to exploit them…I will knock Klitschko out and turn the world of boxing on its head.”
The chances of Pianeta knocking out Wladimir are quite low indeed. The only fighters that Pianeta has ever stopped in his career are C level opponents.
Wladimir was supposed to be facing WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin, but he instead asked for permission by the World Boxing Association to get an optional title defense in. Some boxing fans wonder why Wladimir went through all the trouble to do this given that he’s chosen a weak opponent that isn’t popular and doesn’t have a chance of winning the fight.
It gives some fans the impression that Wladimir is just milking his title by facing the easiest guys he can to prolong his time as a world champion. In his last three fights, Wladimir has beaten Jean Marc Mormeck, Tony Thompson and Mariusz Wach. There are arguably much better contenders that Wladimir could have faced, but he chose those guys.
Comments are closed.