Deontay plans on being aggressive against Povetkin

By Boxing News - 04/22/2016 - Comments

1-deontay-wilder (12)By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) has one month to go before he defends his WBC title against his mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) on May 21 next month at the Khodynka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia. Wilder already knows how he plans on fighting Povetkin after watching the Russian fighter’s one-sided 12 round decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko three years ago in 2013.

Deontay and his trainer Jay Deas noted that Wladimir had success by standing tall, holding and leaning a lot against Povetkin. They don’t plan on doing the leaning and holding like Klitschko did, but they do plan on fighting tall to get the better of Povetkin.

Deontay, 6’7”, believes that this is going to be the first time in the pro career of the 36-year-old Povetkin that he’s been in the ring with someone as tall and as athletic as Deontay is.

“Basically what Klitschko did to [Povetikin] is that he stayed tall and he was the more aggressive guy,” said Wilder to premierboxingchampionscom. “That’s what I’m planning to do is stay tall and be aggressive. I’m more athletic and a lot faster than Klitschko. I promise you that Povetkin is definitely going to see a fighter that he’s never seen, that’s for sure.“

I agree with Deontay about Povetkin seeing the most talented fighter he’s ever been in with before. This is not a good fight for Povetkin, because the only tall he’s faced during his pro career were Wladimir, Mariusz Wach, Andrzej Wawrzyk, Nicolai Firtha and David Bostice. Of that group of fighters, only Wladimir was any good. The rest of the tall fighters Povetkin has faced were mediocre 2nd and 3rd tier guys with little in the way of talent.

Povetkin looked horrible against Wladimir, and he looked almost as bad in his last fight against Mariusz Wach last November. The 6’2” Povetkin got a stoppage win in the 12th round against the slow-moving, slow-punching 6’7 ½” Wach, but the fight was still very, very competitive throughout and it shouldn’t have been.

It was supposed to have been an easy fight for Povetkin, but he ended up struggling with Wach’s height, reach ad power. It looked like two fighters from two separate weight divisions fighting each other. The only reason Povetkin didn’t lose the fight is because Wach isn’t very good. If Wach had some talent, Povetkin would have lost on size alone.

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“Povetkin is a tremendous fighter who is strong and aggressive,’’ said Wilder’s trainer Jay Deas to premierboxingchampions.com. “He’s only lost one fight and it was an ugly fight to watch, with lots of strategic holding and leaning and so on. Deontay is a totally different fighter than Klitschko, so what would work for Wlad probably wouldn’t for Deontay and vice versa. Deontay has to do what he does best, which is use his distance and range to create punching opportunities.”

Povetkin has won his last four fights since his loss to Wladimir in 2013, but he hasn’t beaten anyone in the class of Deontay. That’s the problem. Povetkin has wins over mediocre fighters and he’s going to be dealing with a fighter that is arguably better than Klitschko when he gets inside the ring with Deontay on May 21.