By Scott Gilfoid: As I predicted, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) will be forced to defend his WBC title in Russia against his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) in the coming months. Fight News is reporting that the Wilder-Povetkin fight will be taking place in Russia. Povetkin’s promoter Andrey Ryabinsky of the World of Boxing is saying.
It’s no surprise that the Wilder-Povetkin fight will be staged in Russia. After Povetkin’s promoter Ryabinsky won the recent purse bid to stage the fight, it was clear that they were going to have it take place in Russia. I mean, why bother even winning the purse bid if you’re not going to take the fight to your home country?
Povetkin’s promoter hasn’t named the city in Russia where the fight will take place, but it seems likely that Moscow, Russia will be the place. That’s where Povetkin fought Wladimir Klitschko in 2013 after Povetkin’s promoter won the purse bid to stage that fight.
Having the fight staged in Russia is probably not going to help the 36-year-old Povetkin anyway. It certainly didn’t help Povetkin in his fight against Wladimir in 2013. The problem that Povetkin has, besides him nearing 40, is he’s very short for a heavyweight at just 6’2”. He doesn’t have a long reach, he’s not fast of hand or feet, and he possesses only average punching power. Povetkin is the type of heavyweight that can only score knockouts win he’s fighting guys that are slow, stationary, average height, and who have a fragile chin.
Povetkin isn’t going to be able to reach the 6’7” Deontay with his punches unless Deontay stands perfectly still and doesn’t move around the ring or throw punches. That’s obviously not going to happen because Deontay is an extremely mobile heavyweight with a great jab, a mean left hook and arguably the best right hand in all of boxing. Povetkin will be lucky to win a round in this contest.
Outside the ring I'm a nice, approachable guy, but when the glove go on I'm a different kind of animal. #BombZquad pic.twitter.com/kcDG8mCOpq
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) March 7, 2016
With the fight taking place in Povetkin’s home country, don’t be surprised if you see a controversial outcome in this fight. I’m just saying. This is why I think it would have been better for Deontay to vacate his WBC title so that he wouldn’t have to take any chances of being on the receiving end of a controversial decision. I don’t know what Deontay’s manager Al Haymon told him about whether he should give up his WBC title or not, but I wouldn’t blame him if he did. It would be a smart move for Deontay to bin the WBC title, and then hit the reload button by going after the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir or Charles Martin vs. Anthony Joshua fight. Wilder would likely easily get a fight against the winner of those fights, because they wouldn’t want to turn down a hugely popular heavyweight like Deontay for a fight. Deontay wouldn’t have to worry about being on the receiving end up a controversial decision if he took on the winner of those fights straightway.
Povetkin is a former WBA heavyweight champion. He lost his title three years ago in a one-sided 12 round decision loss to Wladimir. Since then, Povetkin has beaten Carlos Takam, Mariusz Wach, Mike Perez and Manuel Charr. Of that bunch, Takam is a decent fighter. He gave Povetkin a lot of problems in their fight a couple of years ago. Povetkin had to change his game around completely by being more defensive. However, Takam didn’t have the super long reach, mobility or the crushing one-punch power that Deontay has. That’s the big difference. If Takam had the physical assets and the pure athleticism that Deontay has going for him, then I don’t think he would have lost to Povetkin.
Deontay is coming off of an impressive 9th round knockout win over Artur Szpilka last January in New York. Szpilka moved all night long to try and not get hit by Wilder’s right hand shots, but he eventually was knocked clean out by Wilder in the 9th. Szpilka was so hurt that he had to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher. That knockout showed pretty clearly the kind of massive punching power that Deontay has going for him. Povetkin is going to bne in trouble in this fight because he doesn’t have the size or the mobility to keep from getting hit. Heck, Wladimir knocked Povetkin down four times in their fight in 2013. If Wladimir was able to drop Povetkin that many times, then you can imagine how many times Wilder will put him down.
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