Deontay Wilder vs. Alexander Povetkin possible for May 21

By Boxing News - 02/12/2016 - Comments

1-deontay-wilder (8)By Scott Gilfoid: A working date of May 21 is the possible date for the huge fight between the talented 6’7” WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) and #1 WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs). Deontay had been talking recently of wanting to get the fight against Povetkin over with by April, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

However, May 21 is still a good date for the fight. At least it won’t get dragged out until the summer months like the Wladimir Klitschko vs. Tyson Fury rematch, which unbelievably still doesn’t have a date or a venue after all this time.

Deontay’s promoter Lou Dibella told RingTV that the 5/21 date is when they’d like to have the Wilder-Povetkin fight take place, an d they’re looking at staging it at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

There is a large Russian community in New York that could potentially come see the fight, so that’s one of the many benefits of having the fight take place there rather than in Deontay’s home state of Alabama.

Deontay just wants to get the Povetkin fight out of the way so that he’s free and clear to get the bigger fights against the likes of Tyson Fury and Charles Martin. Deontay can’t get to the big money fights until he takes care of the aging 36-year-old Povetkin first.

“I got Alexander Povetkin lined up,” Wilder said to RingTV.com. “That’s what I know of right now. I want to get Povetkin out of the way.”

Some boxing fans see the Wilder-Povetkin fight as a 50-50 affair, as they feel that Povetkin’s power, experience and talent will give Wilder problems. To be sure, Povetkin has a nice four-fight winning streak going for him since his one-sided 12 round decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2013.

Povetkin has since beaten Manuel Charr, Mike Perez, Carlos Takam and Mariusz Wach. Unfortunately for Povetkin, none of those guys are named “Deontay Wilder,” and none of them have the one-punch power that Deontay possesses. As such, it doesn’t matter how many tune-up opponents that Povetkin beats, if they’re not named Deontay, then it’s all a waste.

All I know is Povetkin looked horrible in his last fight against the 6’7 ½” Wach last November. Povetkin looked too small in the ring compared to Wach, and he was getting nailed by right hands and jabs all night long from the Polish born Wach. If that had been Deontay in the ring with Povetkin, I think he would have been picking himself up off the canvas over and over again.

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I don’t see any improvement in Povetkin’s game since his loss to Wladimir in 2013. If anything, Povetkin looks older, slower and easier to hit. The only thing that’s changed with Povetkin is he’s faced four easy opponents since that fight to pad his record. Povetkin hasn’t improved, and I see him in a lot of trouble when he gets inside the ring with Deontay.

Wilder is coming off of an impressive 9th round KO victory over Artur Szpilka last January in New York. Szpilka was running all around the ring trying not to get knocked out. Finally, Wilder caught Povetkin with a big right hand in the 9th that knocked him clean out. Szpilka was then taken out of the ring on a stretcher.



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