Deontay Wilder congratulates Povetkin on win over Perez

By Boxing News - 05/22/2015 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (33-0, 32 KOs) took time out on Friday to congratulate Alexander Povetkin (29-1, 21 KOs) for his 1st round knockout victory over Mike Perez (21-2-1, 13 KOs) in their WBC heavyweight eliminator today at the Luzhniki, in Moscow, Russia. In what was supposed to have been a competitive fight, Povetkin knocked Perez down twice in the 1st round in getting a lightning fast KO.

Povetkin is now the 6’7” Wilder’s WBC mandatory challenger. However, Povetkin is going to have to wait for the talented Deontay to finish his business with his scheduled June 13th voluntary defense against the capable Eric Molina (23-2, 17 KOs) at the Bartow Arena, in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Once Deontay takes care of the 6’4” Molina, he’ll go after Povetkin and make his mandatory defense.

Wilder wasn’t afraid of what he saw from Povetkin today, because he knows that there’s a world of difference between him and the short 6’1” Perez. The two fighters are complete opposites of each other in every department.

Congratulations to Povetkin on the win,” Wilder said on his twitter today. ”I’m looking forward to having my first mandatory title defense. Bombsquad.”.

As much I like Povetkin as a fighter, I think he’s got his work cut out for him against the blistering fast and powerful Deontay. We saw how easily IBF/IBO/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko was able to take care of Povetkin two years ago in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2013. Wladimir, 6’6”, used his superior height, reach, weight and punching power to knock Povetkin down four times in the fight en route to winning an easy decision.

This was with Wladimir fighting defensively and not doing much on offense. If Deontay opens up his offensive arsenal of power shots against Povetkin, it’s hard to even see Povetkin making it past the 4th round. I can’t see him lasting that long against a knockout artist with the kind of power that Wilder has. If you look at how frequently Wilder was able to hurt his last opponent Bermane Stiverne last January, I don’t think Povetkin would be able to survive any of the moments in which Deontay had Stiverne hurt.

I see Deontay winning this fight with ease. Wilder will likely use the blueprint that Wladimir created in how to beat Povetkin. I mean, I don’t expect Deontay to clinch Povetkin all night long like Wladimir did in beating him in 2013, but I think we could see Wilder tying Povetkin up from time to time if he strays too close to him. But mostly, we’re going to see Deontay moving frequently, landing hard jabs, and bombing Povetkin with right hands and left hooks from the outside.

Deontay has to get past his fight against Molina before he can start planning for the Povetkin fight. Deontay and Molina will be mixing it up on June 13th on Showtime. It should be a great fight from start to finish.



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