By Eric Thomas: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Kubrat Pulev (17-0, 9 KO’s) will reportedly be facing former WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (31-2-1, 20 KO’s) in two months on August 24th in a still to be determined venue in Germany, according to Boxingnews.com.ua.
Pulev, #1 IBF, was hoping to face Britain’s Tyson Fury in an IBF eliminator bout to fight for the shot to become the mandatory challenger for IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, but Fury chose not to take the fight for some reason.
Chagaev, #3 WBA, #5 IBF, hasn’t done much with his career since losing his WBA heavyweight title in 2009. Chagaev held the WBA title from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, Chagaev was stopped by Wladimir Klitschko in the 9th round.
In 2011, Chagaev was beaten by Alexander Povetkin by a 12 round unanimous decision. Bunched around those losses, Chagaev has beaten a number of 2nd tier heavyweights like Travis Walker, Billy Zumbrun, Mike Sheppard, Kali Meehan, Werner Kreiskott and Kertson Manswell.
It’s surprising that Chagaev, 34, is willing to face a fighter as good as Pulev because it seems like a really bad match-up for Chagaev on the surface.
It’s not that Pulev is unbeatable, but you’ve got to be a pretty good heavyweight to beat him and at this point in Chagaev’s career I’m not sure that he has the skills, stamina, power or size to beat the 6’4” Pulev.
Pulev, 32, last fought in September of last year in defeating the 6’7” Alexander Ustinov by an 11th round TKO win. The fight was interesting in that Pulev threw almost all jabs in the fight and didn’t do much with his power shots. Pulev is kind of one dimensional as far as his offense goes.
Pulev’s got a great jab, good size, but not much else going for him. He can’t punch and he uses his jab and his size to defeat smaller opponents. Pulev’s other notable wins in his career have come against Alexander Dimitrenko, Michael Sprott, Travis Walker, Derric Rossy, Matt Skelton, Dominick Guinn and Pablo Vidoz.
Even if Pulev beats Chagaev, he’s still not going to be ready to beat a fighter like Wladimir Klitschko. Pulev doesn’t have the power to beat Wladimir and he’ll have to figure something out if he wants to have a chance to beat him because as things are right now, Pulev wouldn’t stand a chance against the 6’6” Ukrainian.
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