Deontay Wilder vs. Alexander Povetkin in the works for May or June

By Boxing News - 01/19/2016 - Comments

1-wilderszpilka (4)By Scott Gilfoid: Negotiations are reportedly underway for a fight between WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) and Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) for May or June of this year. Wilder vs. Povetkin is not a huge fight unfortunately, but Wilder has to get past the 36-year-old Povetkin for him to get to the bigger money fights against the likes of Tyson Fury, David Haye and Anthony Joshua.

It’ll be June at the latest. As for the location of the fight, it’ll be determined based on how the negotiations go and whether there is the need for a purse bid. If it does go to a purse bid, then the fight could wind up in Russia.

Wilder prefers the fight being staged in the U.S., but he might have to fight Povetkin in his home country. Whatever the case, Wilder doesn’t mind fighting in front of a hostile audience. We saw that last Saturday night with his fight against Artur Szpilka (20-2, 15 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Despite Wilder being the American, the huge crowd of 12,668 fans were cheering loudly for the 26-year-old Szpilka throughout the fight. Wilder didn’t seem to be too bothered by the pro-Szpilka audience though. If anything, he seemed even more motivated to inflict punishment on Szpilka with the louder the audience became. Wilder finally quieted the Szpilka crowd after knocking him out cold with a right hand in round nine.

YouTube video

If Tyson Fury could get his rematch against Wladimir Klitschko over with quicker, it would setup the possibility for a unification fight between Wilder and Fury straightaway. However, it looks like it’s going to take too much time to negotiate that fight and get it out of the way for a fight between Wilder and the winner. Wilder can’t wait four to five months for the Klitschko-Fury 2 fight to take place. Wilder will need to negotiate the fight with Povetkin and it get out of the way so that he can be ready to fight whoever emerges as the winner of the Fury vs. Klitschko rematch.

Wilder, 6’7”, won’t be looking to steer around the Povetkin fight in order to face someone like Charles Martin or Tyson Fury in a unification fight. Wilder is ready to get it over with by facing Povetkin and doing what he has to do for him to defeat the Russian fighter.

Wilder’s star power will increase significantly if he can beat Povetkin and look good in doing so. That’s another scalp that Wilder would be adding to his collection of names that he’s defeated. It would only leave six to eight top heavyweights in the division left for him to beat in order to become a massive star.

I figure that Deontay will have become a major star if he can beat some or all of these names:

Tyson Fury
Wladimir Klitscho
Charles Martin
Lucas Browne
Kubrat Pulev
Dillian Whyte
Ruslan Chagaev
Anthony Joshua
Carlos Takam
Alexander Ustinov
Joseph Parker
Luis Ortiz
Bryant Jennings
Dereck Chisora

So we’re basically looking at 15 names at the most that separates the powerful Deontay from superstardom. If he beats some or all of those fighters, then he will be a huge name in the sport. We’re talking about a fighter with a potential record of 50-0 by that point. Wilder would be the new Floyd Mayweather Jr. However, he’s got to beat those guys for him to get to the next level.



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