By Erik Schmidt: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Alexander Ustinov (14-0, 12 KOs) will return to the ring this Saturday night against American journeyman Danny Batchelder (25-6-1, 12 KOs) in a scheduled eight round bout at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Halle, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Ustinov, 32, a former MMA fighter who’s still finding his way in boxing having started his pro career only four years ago, is making a significant step up in competition facing the limited but tough Batchelder on the undercard of the WBC title match between champion Vitali Klitschko and his number #1 challenger Juan Carlos Gomez.
Ustinov, who’s promoted by the Klitschko brother’s promotional team K2 East, has shown a lot of promise since turning pro four years ago. At 6’7″, 300 pounds, Ustinov is one of the biggest heavyweights in the division, and unlike Nikolay Valuev, another hulking heavyweight, Ustinov can actually fight well. Despite his huge size, Ustinov is quite nimble on his feet, and though he’ll never be mistaken for having blinding hand speed, he makes up for his lack of speed by having sneaky power.
He doesn’t load up with his shots like most heavyweights generally do, but rather instead he throws light punches for a certain period of time and then suddenly lets loose with a hard shot that catches his opponents by surprise and knocks them out.
In his last fight, a 5th round stoppage over Maksym Pedyura on February 26th, Ustinov hided his time for the first four rounds, using mostly his jab along with an occasional combination, he controlled the action and seemed to put Pedyura to sleep. Ustinov didn’t even try to put any power on his shots until the 5th round, when all of a sudden he turned up the heat on his shots, hammering the surprised looking Pedyura with a rain of shots in the corner ending with a shower of blood coming from Pedyura’s nose.
The referee, seeing the blood all over Pedyura’s face, stepped in and stopped the action to have his nose examined by the ringside doctor. After a few moments, the fight was put to a stop at 1:56 of the 5th. The win was a typical bout for Ustinov, who despite his huge size, he is more of a ring technician than a true knockout artist.
Against Pedyura, Ustinov skillfully avoided his attacks by backing off and firing shots in retreat. Not an easy fighter to hit due to his long dimensions and his ability to lean away from head shots, Ustinov generally makes it tough on his opponents when they’re trying to establish an offense against him.
You would think by looking at him, a tall, slightly overweight, balding fighter, that he would be easy to hit. But, that’s not the case, however. He controls the distance well with his long jab and likes to measure his opponents to keep them as far away as possible.
In his bout prior to his fight against Pedyura, he destroyed 7’1″ Julius Long in the 1st round in October 2008. Ustinov went right after Long from the opening bell, not wasting any time by hitting him with powerful combinations and backing him up against the ropes. Late in the round, Ustinov staggered Long with a hard right hand to the head. Ustinov then finished Long with a huge right hand to the head that put him down for the count.
On Saturday night, Ustinov needs to make an impression, to show the K2 East management that he’s capable of taking a bigger step up against better competition. At 32, he doesn’t have a whole lot of time to be brought along as slow as more youthful fighters, which means that he’s going to have to look good if he can hope to make something of his career. He looks comparable to British heavyweight Tyson Fury, an unbeaten fighter that many people are raving about in England. Ustinov may not have Fury’s hand speed, but he matches him in power and size.