By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) is going to need to put a sock in it for a while and wait his turn for an eventual title shot against the talented and athletic WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs).
Earlier on Wednesday, the World Boxing Council approved Wilder for a voluntary defense of his WBC title for January 16th 2016. Wilder doesn’t have an opponent yet, but it’ll be one of the WBC’s top 15 contenders. #7 WBC Artur Szpilka and #12 WBC Chris Arreola are two of the names that have been mentioned as possibilities for Wilder.
My guess is Szpilka will be the one Wilder winds up facing because he’s Eastern European and will give Wilder a good warmup for the 6’2” Povetkin. Ideally, #3 WBC Vyacheslav Glazkov would be the best option for Wilder, but I doubt that he’ll be selected by Wilder’s adviser Al Haymon. Glazkov is clearly the better fighter than Szpilka, but he’s more of a mandatory challenger type talent than someone you face for a voluntary defense.
The WBC wanted to give Povetkin the benefit of the doubt to let him fight Wilder next, but there’s no way on earth that the Russian fighter will be ready to step inside the ring to fight the hard hitting Wilder in January, especially now that Povetkin has suffered a bad cut over his left eye from his 12th round knockout win over #11 WBC Mariusz Wach (31-2, 17 KOs) from their fight tonight at the Basket-Hall Arena in Kazan, Russia.
Povetkin won the fight by a 12th round knockout, but he was cut over his left eye in the 4th. That cut is going to need time to heal, and it’s not going to be ready by January for him to take contact.
I could just see Povetkin stepping into the ring with Wilder in January and then having the partially healed cut opened up by the first monstrous right hand that Deontay hits him with. It’s one thing for Povetkin to be bleeding from a cut against a limited fighter like Wach, but a completely different thing for him to be bleeding against an athletic talent like Wilder. The punches would be coming in like rain from Wilder, and Povetkin would basically be a one-eyed fighter at the mercy of Wilder.
For Wilder, this will be his third consecutive optional title defense of his WBC belt. You can’t blame the WBC for allowing Wilder to slip in another voluntary defense of his title, because it is Povetkin’s fault for choosing to fight a tune-up fight so close to a title shot against Wilder. I mean, if Povetkin had just waited patiently for his shot against Wilder like he should have done, then he would have been able to fight him in January, but Povetkin royally blew it. Now he’s going to be licking his wounded left eye for the next five to six months before he’ll get his title shot in either April or May.
Wilder is going to have a huge advantage in size, speed, power and athleticism when he finally gets the smaller Povetkin in the ring. I don’t see how Povetkin will be able to match-up with Wilder in this fight, because he’s too old, too short, and too slow to compete with Wilder. I see this fight as more one-sided fight for Wilder than Wladimir Klitschko’s one-sided victory over Povetkin from two years ago in 2013.
We still don’t know where the Wilder-Povetkin fight will take place. I could see this going to a purse bid in the negotiations with the bid being won by one of the wealthy Russian billionaires. In that case, Wilder will need to fight Povetkin in Russia some place. I don’t see that having any real effect on the outcome of the fight though. Wilder is comfortable fighting anywhere, and he won’t be bothered by a pro-Povetkin crowd. It might play out better for Wilder to fight in Russia because he could get a bigger payday if the fight winds up over there. It would be a good fight for Alabama though due to Wilder’s ability to attract huge crowds over there.
Povetkin needs to improve his game considerably for him to be able to compete against a talent like Wilder, because Povetkin looked gawd awful tonight against Wach. Povetkin just looked like an old short guy to me.
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