Deontay Wilder: My priority is to KO Alexander Povetkin

By Boxing News - 04/21/2016 - Comments

1-deontay-wilder (2)By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) isn’t too worried about being royally robbed next month in his fight against his #1 WBC challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) on May 21, because Wilder feels that he’s going to knock the 36-year-old Russian out so that the judges don’t have any say so in this contest.

Wilder will be fighting in the 36-year-old Povetkin’s home country at the Khodynka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia. Unlike a lot of fighters who would have some serious concerns about being potentially robbed of a decision, Wilder is confident that he’ll be bringing his own judges to the fight in the form of his two powerful fists that will take care of any questions about who the deserving winner of the fight will be.

“We all know that if we knock him out then we don’t have to worry about that. So of course that’s going to be my priority on my list – to knock him out,” said Deontay.

The talented 6’7” Deontay is always looking to score a knockout over his opponents, and he doesn’t care who it is. He plans on knocking them all out. Wilder’s hand speed, size, youth and power is going to put the shorter 6’2” Povetkin in an awful bind in this fight. Povetkin doesn’t have the size to measure up against the 30-year-old Wilder, and about the only thing that he can hope for is if Wilder stops and just stands flat-footed long enough for him to land one of his big bombs.

Povetkin is a big puncher too, and he’s capable of knocking out anyone in the heavyweight division if he can cleanly with one of his big shots. If Deontay stays in motion for the entire fight, then the only thing that Povetkin can hope for is to land a big shot after Deontay misses with one of his big right hands. I don’t know if that’s going to work too well for Povetkin, because Deontay will surely be wrapping him up in a clinch if he missed one of his heat-seeking right hand missiles.

Deontay isn’t much of a clincher, but I think he might do a little holding in this fight if/when he misses his target with his right hand solo blasts. However, Deontay is a superb inside fighter, and I could see him doing a real number on Povetkin on the inside. Who can forget the incredible/devastating work Deontay did on the inside against the 6’5” Johann Duhaupas in their fight last September.

Wilder really worked him over on the inside and eventually hit him with enough big shots to cause the referee to stop the contest. I would favor Duhaupas over Povetkin if the two of them were to fight. That kind of tells you how good Deontay is. He’s developed into an inside threat recently due to the high quality training he’s been receiving.

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Out of all the heavyweights in the division, I would rate Deontay as the #1 in terms of skills on the inside. I rate Luis “The Real King Kong” Ortiz as the #2 fighter in the division with his inside fighting ability.

“I predict the fight as being a punishment in the first round and then knocking him out,” said Deontay. “I’m looking to knock him out.”

Deontay wants to fight the winner of the July 9 fight between Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko. I don’t think that’s going to happen if Fury wins, because he’s already said his next target is IBF champion Anthony Joshua. But if Wladimir wins, I think he’ll agree to fight Deontay because he’s wanted to fight for the WBC title for a long time. Wladimir would want to try and win that belt, and then face the winner of Joshua vs. Fury to recapture his IBF belt, which he lost to Fury last November in their close contest in Dusseldorf, Germany.

As for Povetkin, he’s going to have a really tough time trying to land his shorter punches against the much taller Deontay. Povetkin was too little for the 6’6″ Wladimir three years ago in 2013. Povetkin lost by a one-sided 12 round decision. Povetkin is now fighting an even taller, faster, younger and stronger fighter in Deontay compared to the fighter he lost to three years ago.