By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) says he still wants to give Russian Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) a real thrashing despite him having tested positive for a banned drug Meldonium, which has resulted in their fight being postponed.
Wilder says the drug wouldn’t have stopped him from giving the 36-year-old Povetkin a beating in front of his own fans and the president of Russia if the fight had taken place next weekend on May 21 at the Khodnyka Ice Palace in Moscow, Russia.
Deontay thinks it’s just plain cowardice that led to Povetkin testing positive for the meldonium drug.
“I still want to whip his [expletive]. There ain’t no drug that he can take that could stop the [expletive] whipping I had waiting for him. Povetkin was never dangerous to me,” said Wilder to premierboxingchampions.com. “I was ready to show the world what Deontay Wilder is capable of, but he stole my opportunity away from me – not only from me, but from the fans of boxing in his own country.”
For Deontay, this was going to be his fourth defense of his WBC title that he won last year in January 2015 with a lopsided 12 round decision win over Bermane Stiverne. Many boxing fans thought Povetkin was the one that would finally send Deontay down to defeat for the first time in his career.
Deontay didn’t believe it. As we can see from his comments, Deontay was and still is very confident of beating the 36-year-old Povetkin. Whether the fight can still be salvaged or not will be up to the WBC.
Deontay needed this win over Povetkin to help validate his career in order to show the boxing world that he can beat one of the best heavyweights in the division. A win over Povetkin would have put Deontay in another bracket in winning him respect from fans. Deontay then could have taken the victory and moved forward to bigger fights against the likes of Anthony Joshua, David Haye, Tyson Fury and Luis Ortiz.