By Scott Gilfoid: WBC Silver heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (29-1, 21 KOs) will be trying to keep alive his hopes for a world title shot in 2016 when he faces 35-year-old former world title challenger Mariusz Wach (31-1, 17 KOs) this Wednesday night in what is supposed to be a tune-up fight for the Russian Povetkin at the Basket-Hall Arena, in Kazan, Russia.
Povetkin is fighting the 6’8” Wach in order to get comfortable with what he’ll be seeing when/if he gets inside the ring with the monstrous-sized 6’7” WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) in early 2016.
By fighting Poland’s Wach, Povetkin is assuming that it’ll help him get ready for the kinds of things that he’ll be seeing against Deontay. But unfortunately it doesn’t work like that because Wach is so much different from Wilder than it’s basically a useless fight for Povetkin.
Heck, Povetkin would be better off fighting the slow as molasses Alexander Ustinov than Wach, because at least he is somewhat talented. If anything, fighting Wach could mess Povetkin up by making him sloppy because he’ll be able to do pretty much whatever he wants against Wach due to his slow hand speed and limited boxing skills. To be sure, Povetkin won’t be able to fight in such a relaxed and sloppy manner against a big puncher with the kind of hand speed that Deontay has going for him.
Povetkin is the #1 WBC mandatory challenger for Wilder’s WBC title, and I don’t think he’s nearly ready to be mixing it up with a young lion like Wilder because he’s so much bigger, faster and stronger than Povetkin. This is like a super heavyweight fighting a sluggish cruiserweight.
Povetkin was beaten with ease by Wladimir Klitschko in 2013, and he was arguably beaten by Marco Huck in their fight in 2012. I had Huck winning that fight by a narrow 12 round decision. I mean, he landed the harder shots throughout the fight and was the busier guy in every round.
In Povetkin’s last three fights, he’s beaten Mike Perez, Carlos Takam and Manuel Charr. Those were easy fights for Povetkin because none of those fighters are good. They were all slow guys that were easy to hit, and that enabled Povetkin to land at will against them.
Povetkin will obviously be too strong and skilled for the limited Wach this Wednesday, but that’s not saying much. Wach is a guy that struggled in his last fight against journeyman Konstantin Airich. That fight showed pretty clearly that Wach is an easy mark for Povetkin, and not someone that will even give him a competitive fight.
I think someone like Johann Duhaupas would give Povetkin all he’s worth, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he beat him. That would be a really tough fight for Povetkin. I think Povetkin would struggle against Eric Molina as well. These are really big heavyweights, and he’s only 6’2”. Trying to handle the height, reach and weight of the bigger heavyweights would be a nightmare for Povetkin.
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