By Dan Ambrose: K2 Promotions won the purse bid on Tuesday and will be in control of the September 6th fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 KO’s) and his IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev (20-0, 11 KO’s). K2 won the purse bid with a $7,250,131 bid in beating the $5,250,144 offered by Pulev’s promoters Sauerland Event.
The fight now must be made within 90 days. The day that K2 is interested in staging the fight is on September 6th in Hamburg, Germany, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
Pulev, 6’4 ½”, is one of the better contenders that Wladimir has faced since his win over David Haye in 2011. That was a unification fight. As far as contenders go, Pulev is the best contender that Wladimir has been in with since his win over a prime Tony Thompson in 2008. Back then, Thompson was a very good fighter and he gave Wladimir a lot of problems before succumbing in the 11th round. Pulev beat Thompson last year by a 12 round unanimous decision, but it was a much older version of Thompson than the one Wladimir faced in 2008.
Besides his victory over Thompson, Pulev has victories over Alexander Dimitrenko, Alexander Ustinov, Joey Abell, Michael Sprott and Dominick Guinn. His promoters have been very careful with him not to put him in with anyone truly dangerous like Tyson Fury, Dereck Chisora, Deontay Wilder, Bermane Stiverne, Mike Perez, Bryant Jennings, Chris Arrela, Carlos Takam, Andy Ruiz, Tomasz Adamek, Alexander Povetkin, Lucas Browne or Vyacheslav Glazkov. There’s been a definite strategy to the guys that Pulev has been put in with by his promoters.
“I was ringside when Wladimir defended his belts a few weeks ago,” Pulev said via Dan Rafael of ESPN. “It was a walk in the park against Leapai. When Klitschko meets me inside the ring, I will cause him real problems, to say the least. I will show the fans worldwide that Klitschko is no invincible machine and fulfill my dream.”
Pulev mostly jabs, and doesn’t have much power at all. He’s very defensive and retreats immediately when his opponents come after him. He wins his fights by jabbing his smaller opponents and softening them up for his clubbing shots. Pulev will need to find some power for him to beat Wladimir, because he’s not going to defeat him by out-jabbing him for 12 rounds. He doesn’t have Wladimir’s hand speed, or power. Even Pulev’s jab isn’t as good as Wladimir’s.
Comments are closed.