By Jim Dower: #1 IBF Kubrat Pulev (19-0, 10 KO’s) will be facing his third scheduled opponent for this Saturday night in Danny Hughes (12-2-2, 3 KO’s) in a scheduled 8 round bout at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Pulev was previously scheduled to fight Ellijah McCall and then Joey Dawejko, but both of those fights fell apart for various reasons.
Pulev, 6’4 ½”, sees himself as an avoided fighter by other heavyweights. He’s already the IBF mandatory challenger to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. He won’t have to worry about Wladimir avoiding him, because he’ll be a huge underdog against him due to his lack of punching power.
“This is like a circus,” Pulev said to Fightnews. “It reminds me of my amateur days, when I fought in the national championships. During this time no one dared to step in against me in Bulgaria. I was becoming a champion with walkover wins without stepping in the ring.”
Pulev dominated in the Bulgarian National Championships, to be sure. However, he struggled when he fought in the 2008 Olympics for Bulgaria, and was easily beaten in his first and only fight against Oscar Rivas from Colombia. Rivas beat Pulev by an 11-5 score. Pulev was also dominated by Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle in the 2009 World Championships in losing by a 12-6 score.
Cammerelle had too much power for Pulev, and was able to land the much harder and cleaner shots. Pulev was a good amateur, but he definitely had problems when he went up against guys with more power than him. Pulev likely would have been out of his element had he competed in the 2012 London Olympics, because the super heavyweight class had a number of very good heavyweights, including Cammerelle and Anthony Joshua to name just a couple.
Pulev is using the Hughes fight to stay sharp for his title shot against Wladimir. Hughes, 6’5”, has the size to get Pulev ready for Wladimir, but not the power, speed and talent level.
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