Povetkin next for Deontay Wilder, says Sulaiman

By Boxing News - 09/28/2015 - Comments

Image: Povetkin next for Deontay Wilder, says SulaimanBy Tim Fletcher: With his 11th round technical knockout victory over #11 WBC contender Johann Duhaupas (32-3, 20 KOs) last Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) has run out of voluntary defenses to take, and he now has to defend against his dangerous #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (29-1, 21 KOs) in his next fight.

This is what World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman is saying. As long as the 36-year-old former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin wins his next fight on November 4th against former world title challenger Mariusz Wach (31-1, 17 KOs), then Wilder will need to fight him next.

This is a very dangerous fight for Wilder to have to fight Povetkin. If the fight takes place in Alabama, then Wilder might have a good chance of winning. But if it ends up being staged in Moscow, Russia, Wilder could end up losing. Povetkin fights well in front of his fans in Russia, and Wilder would be out there all by himself with mostly just his training team to give him support.

Wilder did what he had to do to beat an over-matched Duhaupas at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. The fight had a sense of drama to it despite Wilder getting the victory. He was hit a number of times by Duhaupas, and he suffered a swollen left eye.

The Alabama crowd loved Wilder and were cheering him loudly in every round of the fight. It was a big contrast from how Wilder looked in his previous fight against Eric Molina last June. The crowd had few opportunities to cheer for Wilder in that fight because he wasn’t throwing his right hand that often.

There isn’t going to be a unification fight for Wilder next as reported. Sulaiman didn’t say anything about the possibility of Wilder bypassing Povetkin to fight the winner of the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury fight. That’s bad news for Wilder because he could at least be guaranteed a big payday against the winner of that fight. The money that Wilder gets for the Povetkin fight likely won’t be anything near the amount he’ll make for fighting Fury or Klitschko.

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The negotiations will start between Wilder’s promoters and/or adviser in October with Povetkin’s promoters for a fight that will take place in early 2016.

Wilder wants the fight against Klitschko more anything so that he can win his four world titles and become the guy that unseats the longstanding champion.

“Hopefully, sometime at the end of next year,” Wilder said to skysports.com. “We got to get these mandatories out of the way. People got to understand. They got to stay patient. This is a process and a business.”

“Wilder just fought a voluntary defense and is in line to make the mandatory defense,” Sulaiman said via ESPN.com. “The mandatory is Povetkin.”

Wilder’s fans want to see him fight Wladimir or Fury. There’s not a lot of interest in Wilder fighting Povetkin. You can say that the interest is about the same as there was for Wilder to fight Duhaupas, which means there’s no interest.

It’s very possible that Wilder will lose to Povetkin. The Russian fighter is a more complete fighter, and he’s looked very good in his last three fights in beating Manuel Charr, Carlos Takam and Mike Perez.



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