By Allan Fox: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (59-3, 50 KO’s) will be defending his titles this Saturday night in what appears to be a really bad mismatch against Francesco Pianeta (28-0-1, 15 KO’s) at the SAP-Arena, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Pianeta still hasn’t been beaten but he also hasn’t ever faced anyone like Wladimir. Pianeta, #7 WBO, #12 WBA, is going into this fight a very green fighter without the kind of experience that you’d like to see from a title challenger before they’re thrown in with a champion.
In this case, Wladimir and his team hand-picked the 6’5” Pianeta for this fight after getting permission by the World Boxing Association to take this fight first before a bout against WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin.
The fight works for the German fans because they are quite familiar with the 28-year-old Pianeta because he’s fought his entire career there despite having been born in Italy.
For the German fans, Pianeta is a fighter they recognize, and will be interested in seeing. For the rest of the world, this fight doesn’t hold a great deal of interest because only hardcore boxing fans have heard of Pianeta, and very few of them have been impressed with what they’ve seen of him.
Pianeta has beaten the B and C level fighters he’s been fed his entire career and that has moved up the rankings. In his last four fights, Pianeta has beaten Nelson Dano Dominguez, Frans Botha, Oliver McCall and Zack Page. Those are a mix of B and C level fighters, although more of a low B level than you would like for a fighter with as many fights as Pianeta has.
In the big scheme of things it really doesn’t matter too much that Pianeta has been brought along pretty soft because he doesn’t have the hand speed, power, stamina or work rate to be anything more than a sparring partner on Saturday night.
This fight is a step down from Wladimir’s last mismatch against Mariusz Wach. That fight was slightly dangerous for Wladimir because Wach could at least punch a little. Pianeta can’t punch at all, so there’s no risk in this fight for the 6’6” Wladimir.
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