By Jim Dower: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Kubrat Pulev (19-0, 10 KO’s) is now fighting 39-year-old journeyman Ivica Perkovic (20-23, 15 KO’s) on Saturday night instead of the opponent that was mentioned earlier today in Danny Hughes. The Pulev-Perkovic fight is scheduled for 8 rounds on the undercard of the Jurgen Braehmer vs. Enzo Maccarinelli fight at the Stadthalle, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
Pulev’s promoters have had an awful tough time trying to find an opponent for him, and it’s made them look kind of bad with the huge number of fights that have fallen apart.
Pulev was scheduled to fight Elijah McCall initially. McCall chose not to take the fight, and the next opponent mentioned was Joey Dawejko. That fight also fell apart, and then Danny Hughes was mentioned. But according to Fightnews, Hughes had paperwork problem, so the 39-year-old Perkovic was then found. You have to hope that this fight isn’t shelved too for whatever reason.
Pulev would probably be better off forgetting the whole thing and just resting, because a fighter like Perkovic isn’t going to help him at all get ready for his title shot against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko later this year. If anything, it might hurt Pulev to fight someone as low quality as this, because he’s going to be in for a huge shock when he gets in the ring with Wladimir in late 2014 and discovers how much better he is from the soft opposition that he’s been facing.
Pulev, 32, already had a tuneup fight last December in his 5th round TKO win over Joey Abell. Pulev should have either rested after that fight until the Wladimir bout or faced someone at least good enough to help him get ready for what he’s going to be facing when he gets in the ring against Wladimir.
Perkovic has lost 9 out of his last 12 fights dating back to 2012, and looked poor. He’s been beaten by the likes of Hughie Fury, Alexander Ustinov, Alexander Dimitrenko, Carlos Takam, Jarno Rosberg, Mark de Mori, Oscar Rivas, Leif Larsen, and Francesco Pianeta during his 12-year pro career.
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