By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it doesn’t look like WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) plans on giving up his WBC title anytime soon. Despite many boxing fans believing that the 6’7” talent will be giving up his WBC title if his management lose the purse bid for his fight against his mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs), Deontay says that’s something he doesn’t want to do.
Deontay isn’t ruling it out though, but he says it’s definitely something that he doesn’t want to do. You can’t blame Deontay if he does vacate though. If his management loses the purse bid, then it would surely mean that he would need to fight Povetkin in his home country of Russia.
That obviously isn’t the best of circumstances for Deontay, because he might need to go in there and score a knockout to ensure that he comes out the winner. Luckily for Deontay, he brings his judges with him to his fights in the form of his two powerful fists. The chances of the Wilder-Povetkin fight going to the cards are quite low indeed.
What we don’t want is a repeat of last Saturday’s fight between the German based Felix Sturm and the visiting world champion Fedor Chudinov. Sturm appeared to lose the fight but was still able to get a victory in the scorecards. It would be a pity if that were to happen to Deontay.
“It would have to be a big circumstance for me to drop the belt,” Deontay said to thei inscribermag.com. “I wouldn’t be looking forward to doing that. I think his people putting out that stuff, that’s what they want me to do. They don’t really want to face me, that’s my honest opinion, because if they did, they could have gotten me two fights ago.”
Well, there it is. Deontay says he wouldn’t want to vacate his WBC title, and I believe him. I think he’s willing to deal with whatever circumstances that he has to in order to defend his title against the 36-year-old Povetkin. Deontay wants the fight to be staged in the U.S, naturally. It means more interest from the American fans, and it doesn’t place him in a situation where he would be the visiting fighter needing to do something really spectacular in order to keep his WBC title.
All my fights are personal. My performance in the ring affects everything I do outside the ring. #BombZquad pic.twitter.com/bl5otXrWFu
— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) February 22, 2016
You never want to be in a position as the visiting fighter where you might need a knockout or a four-knockdown performance to keep your title. Wladimir Klitschko went to Moscow, Russia in 2013 and defeated Povetkin by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, but he knocked Povetkin down four times in that fight. There was no way that Povetkin could win that fight with the amount of times he was put on the canvas. I mean, it almost embarrassing the amount of times that Povetkin was picking himself up from the canvas. He just looked too small to be in the ring with Wladimir, and it was no match. When Wladimir would land cleanly, Povetkin would hit the canvas.
Wladimir was a much different fighter from the 39-year-old that lost his belt to Tyson Fury last November. Wladimir appears to have aged badly in the last two years and isn’t the same guy that beat Povetkin.
Deontay says he’s interested in facing Fury if he gets past Wladimir in the rematch. However, it would depend on the date. Fury and Wladimir are dragging out their negotiations and it’s hard to know how much longer the negotiations will drag on. If they keep negotiating all the way to the end of 2016, then it’ll be impossible for Deontay to fight the winner of that contest.
I have a feeling that might see the Klitschko-Fury 2 fight take place at the end of this year, because the negotiations are going too slowly. We got a couple of fighters that are dragging this thing out with the negotiations, and I think it’s literally going to burn up the entire year with the negotiations. It’s too bad because if they just got the fight over in the first quarter of the year, they could move on and fight twice more in the year against the likes of Deontay and others fighters.
“That can definitely happen this year, but it all depends on Tyson fury and his people,” Deontay said. “It all depends on when the date for him and Klitschko to fight again. But if everyone do what they supposed to do, in the proper time, I can definitely see that happening this year. You know me, I’m ready to fight two months later. I don’t play around.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjg1XMLkDJw
I doubt that Wladimir will want any part of fighting Deontay if/when he beats Fury in the rematch. If anything, I think Wladimir is going to milk his titles for his next two fights by taking on bottom feeders before he has to face his next mandatory challenger. I do not see Wladimir breaking from his past pattern and going after someone dangerous like Deontay in a unification fight. I don’t see that happening.
I know Wladimir wanted to collect all the titles in the past so that he could unify the entire heavyweight division, but with him looking really old and feeble in his loss to Fury last November, I don’t see him wanting to take on Deontay. Wladimir’s job is a lot tougher now to collect all the titles due to Fury losing the IBF title after failing to defend it against the IBF mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov.
Charles Martin now holds the IBF heavyweight strap. As such, if Wladimir wants to unify all the titles in the division, then he needs to beat Deontay and then Martin in back to back fights. I wish Wladimir a lot of luck making that happen. I don’t think he’s going to even consider making that move.
“Knowing me, after whooping Povetkin, I might have another one lined up, let’s go get Martin. So beat Povetkin, then get Martin, win that IBF belt, then face Fury for an all-world, undisputed, heavyweight fight to unify the division,” Deontay said.
I think Deontay has a great chance of unifying all the titles. Fury wants to fight Wladimir, so if he whips Wladimir a second time, then that will likely lead to Deontay-Fury this year. Of course, if Wladimir beats Fury, then all bets are off. Like I said, I see Wladimir going on a title milking run if he beats Fury.
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