Wladimir looking for 51st knockout against Pianeta on Saturday

By Boxing News - 04/30/2013 - Comments

WK-CAMP-4-2013-DAY-1-bw-small-border-color_MG_0618-copy(Pic by www.michaelsterlingeaton.com / KMG) By Allan Fox: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (50-3, 50 KO’s) will be looking to add his 51st knockout of his career this Saturday against one of his weaker opponents unbeaten Francesco Pianeta (28-0-1, 15 KO’s) at the SAP-Arena, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Wladimir has really taken a hammering from boxing fans for going out of his way to face the 6’5’ Pianeta instead of looking to fight someone a little better. The excuses from Wladimir that he’s unable to get guys to face him is starting to wear thin with fans because there are a lot of fighters that are more than willing to fight him. He’s got Tyson Fury practically begging him to fight him, and yet Wladimir turns around and fights the likes of Mariusz Wach and now Pianeta.

There’s not much to really focus on for Wladimir-Pianeta fight other than guessing which round Wladimir will end it in. Pianeta struggled in fights against a shopworn Oliver McCall, Frans Botha, Samir Kurtagic and Albert Sosnowski. Those were very, very hard fights for Pianeta and he barely got by most of them, and was given a controversial 12 round draw against Sosnowski in a fight that he probably should have lost.

Pianeta, a German based fighter, is very hard to beat at home when he’s fighting in Germany. However, that won’t apply this Saturday night because Wladimir is a German based fighter as well, and he brings his judges with him in the form of his fists. Wladimir won’t likely let this fight get to the cards, but if it does there won’t be any doubt about who the winner of the fight is. Pianeta doesn’t have the speed, power or stamina to give Wladimir any problems in this fight.

Pianeta, #7 WBO, #12 WBA, has a high ranking for someone who has never fought anyone good. That will should be corrected after he gets beaten by Wladimir this Saturday. However, don’t expect Pianeta’s promoters to start putting him in with more quality opposition. They’ll likely put him back with the same kinds of guys that he fought to build up his inflated ranking, because it pays off.

The sanctioning bodies give fighters high rankings whether they face quality opposition or not, so the promoters have no real motivation to match their guys against quality fighters because they don’t have to. It especially pays off if a promoter has a weak contender that doesn’t have the talent to compete against the other contenders.

Wladimir has a much more important fight coming up this summer against WBA champion Alexander Povetkin in Moscow, Russia. That fight will be Wladimir’s biggest payday of his career with him receiving $17 million. Wladimir just has to make sure he gets through the Pianeta fight without suffering any injuries like cuts, broken bones or torn muscles/ligaments to ensure that he gets that big payday fight.



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