By Allan Fox: Unbeaten #8 WBO, #12 WBA, heavyweight contender Francesco Pianeta (28-0-1, 15 KO’s) says he feels confident about his chances to pull off a huge upset over IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KO’s) in their fight next month on May 4th at the SAP-Arena in Mannheim, Germany.
Pianeta said “If they [Wladimir] underestimate me, I’ll surprise them. I’m still confident I’ll win this fight.”
It’s going to be awfully difficult for the 6’5” Pianeta to win this fight because he pretty much only has one way of winning and that’s by beating Wladimir by a 12 round decision.
Pianeta doesn’t have much in the way of power going for him, and he’s only knocked out one guy in his last four fights despite facing largely weak opposition. It’s kind of telling about Pianeta’s lack of power that he can’t even KO weak opposition.
Pianeta does have one thing going for him in this fight besides his youth, and that’s his southpaw stance. Wladimir was blown out in two rounds by the southpaw Corrie Sanders exactly 10 years ago in 2003.
Wladimir didn’t look like he was prepared for getting punches with lead left hands by Sanders and he ended up getting knocked down three times in the fight before it was halted at 0:27 of the 2nd round.
Pianeta has a chance if he can jump on Wladimir early and land one of his left hands with everything on it. If Pianeta can do that before Wladimir has adapted to his fighting style then he could in theory win this fight.
It’s a long shot, to be sure, but it’s the only real chance that Pianeta has to win this fight because he’s not going to beat Wladimir by a 12 round decision, and the chances are Pianeta isn’t going to be able to go the distance with Wladimir unless he’s got a great chin and can handle the big left hooks and right hands Wladimir will be nailing him with.
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