Glazkov vs. Martin added to Wilder-Szpilka fight card on 1/16

By Boxing News - 12/22/2015 - Comments

wilder555By Scott Gilfoid: As expected, the heavyweight clash between #1 IBF Vyacheslav Glazkov (21-0-1, 13 KOs) and #4 IBF Charles Martin (22-0-1, 20 KOs) has been added to the heavyweight card featuring the talented WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs) vs. Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) on Showtime Championship Boxing on January 16th next month from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

By adding a second heavyweight title fight to the existing Wilder-Szpilka card, it’s obviously going to make for a thrilling fight card to say the least. While I’m not too enamored with the Glazkov vs. Martin fight, I don’t think it taint the Wilder fight card any by the fight turning out to be a buzz-kill for the many boxing fans that will be tuning in to see the fight live on Showtime and watching it at ringside in the Barclays Center.

Glazkov recently was in negotiations to face Wilder on January 16th, but after vulnerable light hitting Tyson Fury pulled off a big surprise upset by squeaking by IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko last month to capture his titles, Glazkov chose to pull out of his fight negotiations with Wilder in order to go after the IBF title, which was quickly stripped from Fury.

I’m not sure if Glazkov knew the IBF title would be stripped from Fury, and sought out the title for that reason, or if he went in that direction because he felt he had a chance for a nice payday against Fury. I think Glazkov and his promoters at Main Events smelled blood in the water with the IBF title being one that was winnable for him, so they went in the path of least resistance.

To be sure, if Glazkov had opted to fight for the WBC title against Wilder, I think it would have ended badly for Glazkov with him getting knocked out straightaway. You have to remember that Glazkov fought to a controversial draw two years ago against Malik Scott in a fight that many people felt Scott deserved to win.

Glazkov has also been involved in controversial wins over journeyman Derric Rossy and cruiserweight Steve Cunningham. I thought Glazkov lost those fights as well. Glazkov just doesn’t seem to have the size, power, speed and talent to conclusively beat decent level fighters. He’s missing in too many areas of his game unfortunately for him to dominate.

“I am looking forward to getting back in the ring and finally getting my opportunity to fight for a world title,” said Glazkov. “I want to thank everyone who helped me get to this place in my career.”

Glazkov has a good chin, and that’s about all I can see in the guy. He can take a good punch and keep forward to land his lighter shots.

I want to become a world champion so I can go down in history as a top heavyweight. Glazkov is a great fighter. He’s undefeated, so I know it’s going to be a tough fight, but I’m coming in to be victorious. I’m getting ready and training hard so I can go out there and get that win.”

I wouldn’t call Glazkov a “great fighter,” as the 6’5″ Martin calls him. I hope Martin isn’t going into this fight thinking that Glazkov is some out of this world title of fighter, because he clearly isn’t. Glazkov is basically a slight step down from the likes of Rossy, Malik Scott and Cunningham in my view. Glazkov is a decent fringe level/2nd tier type of heavyweight. No way in the world do I think Glazkov deserves to be ranked No.1 by the IBF and No.3 by the WBC. Those are just really inflated rankings for this guy, because if you saw how poor Glazkov looked against Rossy, Cunningham and Scott, you’ll know that he’s a limited fighter that was very, very fortunate not be given defeats in those three fights. I can’t understand that the judging in those three fights, because to me it was a no-brainer that Glazlov lost all three of those contests.

Martin is a good heavyweight, but he also has a lot of flaws in his game. Martin has stopped his last 12 opponents, so there’s definitely some punching power there. However, I think Martin looks sloppy at times, and he’s easy to hit.



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