By Allan Fox: Heavyweight contender Alexander Ustinov (27-1, 21 KO’s) will be returning to the ring this month in a scheduled 8 round bout against 38-year-old journeyman Ivica Perkovic (19-19, 14 KO’s) in a fight that will take place at the Sportpalace, Kharkov, Ukraine.
The 36-year-old Ustinov is coming off of an 11th round TKO loss to unbeaten Kubrat Pulev from last September in Hamburg, Germany. The slow and huge 6’7”, 320 lb. Ustinov was beaten down from the powerful jabs from Pulev and eventually Ustinov was dropped in the 11th round and taken out.
Ustinov’s promoters appear to be playing it safe by putting him in with Perkovic because Ustinov is capable of fighting much better opponents than this.
It’s getting late in the 36-year-old Ustinov’s career to be still fighting journeyman, as he should be fighting actual contenders each tie he steps inside the ring if he wants to get pushed up the rankings quickly so that he can get a title shot.
It took Ustinov years to get ranked in the top 10 previously and a big reason for that was his promoters’ reluctance to put him with anyone of quality in the top tier so that he could get pushed up the rankings faster.
Perkovic has lost five out of last seven fights and is coming off an eight round unanimous decision loss to Alexander Dimitrenko last March. Perkovic knocked Dimitrenko down in the 4th round in that fight but wasn’t able to add to it.
In addition to his loss to Dimitrenko, Perkovic also has losses to Francesca Pianeta, Carlos Takam, Jarno Rosberg, Leif Larsen, Sinan Samil Sam, Andrzej Wawrzyk, Steffen Kretschmann, Rene Dettweiler and Taras Bidenko. In other words, he’s been in with many of the top 2nd tier European heavyweights.
Ustinov should be able to walk Perkovic down and dominate him on size alone.
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