By Scott Gilfoid: Russian heavyweight Alexander Povetkin’s team won’t the purse bid earlier today for his fight against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) with a winning bid of $7.15 million.
Wilder’s management bid $5,101.00.42, but it wasn’t enough. It’s not surprising that Povetkin’s team won the bid because this was all predicted by myself and others a long time ago. What this means is that the 6’7” Deontay will need to travel to Russia to defend his title rather than having the fight in the United States.
According to Wilder’s promoter Lou Dibella, they plan on taking the fight with Povetkin.
“If they put fight in Russia then I hope Mr. Putin can personally attend so he can watch Sasha get KO’d,” DiBella said via ESPN.com.
This is potentially a really bad thing for Deontay. It means he’ll need to fight outside of the U.S. I wouldn’t blame Deontay if he vacates his WBC title to avoid a potential controversial decision. Deontay has my permission to vacate the title in order to avoid an unpleasant scene in some other country. I’m just saying. It’s not good to fight in your challenger’s home country, and that’s probably what we’re going to see.
I think it’s pretty much academic that the fight will take place in Russia. Povetkin surely isn’t going to stick the fight in the U.S or some other country. Povetkin and his promoters are going to want to stage the fight in Russia just like they did with the Wladimir Klitschko fight back in 2013 when they staged it in Moscow. In that case, it didn’t help Povetkin one bit, as Wladimir used his 6’6” height and his long reach to totally dominate the shorter 6’2” Povetkin.
Wladimir knocked Povetkin down four times in the fight, and made it look easy. The only reason Wladimir didn’t KO Povetkin was because he was boxing him instead of looking to slug it out. The thing is, Povetkin kept hitting the canvas each time Wladimir would nail him with a hard shot to the head. Povetkin showed no ability to take Wladimir’s hard power shots. It was good that Povetkin was able to get back up each time he was dropped, but it was bad that he kept getting dropped over and over again.
Ever wonder what it’d be like to step inside the ring with the man with the destructive right hand?! #BombZquad pic.twitter.com/oOQoLEYdm8
— PBC (@premierboxing) February 25, 2016
DiBella bid on Wilder-Povetkin was $5,101,000,42,” said Dan Rafael on his Twitter. Povetkin team wins Wilder purse bid: $7.15 million. DiBella only other bid offered $5,101.00.42. Wow! #boxing.”
Some boxing fans believe that Povetkin will stop Wilder. They think that Deontay is little more than an American paper champion. Well, this is going to be Deontay’s chance to prove the fans wrong by going over to Russia and doing a number on the aging 36-year-old Povetkin in front of his own fans.
It’s unclear when the Wilder-Povetkin fight will take place. Deontay wanted the fight to take place in April, but that obviously isn’t going to happen. We’re probably looking at May or June for the fight to take place. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is dragged out until July, but I can’t see it going past that month.
Deontay, 30, has a lot of big fights he wants to be involved with in 2016, and the last thing he needs is to be slowed down by a title defense against Povetkin. I don’t think this is a fight that will resonate with the American boxing public because Povetkin isn’t well known with the casual fans. I mean, Deontay is going to get a big pay day out of this fight, but it’s not likely going to interest the U.S fans.
Deontay wanted to get the Povetkin fight out of the way a long time ago, but the Russian fighter slowed things up by choosing to take a needless tune-up fight against the 6’7 ½” Mariusz Wach last November in Russia.
It was a pointless fight because Wach is nothing like Wilder. I understand the idea for why Povetkin took the fight, because he obviously assumed that it would help him get ready for the 6’7” size of Deontay. However, Wach was so painfully slow in that fight against Povetkin that it was a totally useless fight for him. Deontay is much faster of hand and foot than Wach, and he’s a far better puncher.
What was interesting is how Povetkin struggled with Wach’s size in that fight. Povetkin clearly was having problems with Wach’s size and even his punching power. The thing is Wach was stationary the entire fight. He didn’t move more than a few feet in any direction.
Deontay is a much different type of fighter, and I see Povetkin having a lot of problems against him due to his size, speed, power and youth. This is a mismatch in my book.
With the fight being staged in foreign country, Deontay might need to make sure that he scores a knockout to ensure that he doesn’t find himself on the losing end of a controversial decision.
I would normally never recommend that a fighter vacate his title, but in this case I think it might be the best thing that Deontay can do to avoid a potential controversial decision loss. If Deontay vacates, he can always get an immediate shot at the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko or Charles Martin vs. Anthony Joshua fights. It’s not as if Deontay won’t get a quick title shot. He’s too popular not to get a crack at a world title.
Dibella and Deontay must feel pretty confident that they can go into Russia and take the judges out of the equation by knocking Povetkin around the ring like a rag doll the same way that Wladimir did in 2013. If Deontay can KO Povetkin or knock him down four or five times, then there’s no way that he’ll potentially get robbed of a decision by the judges. Deontay would be going in there to make sure he knocks Povetkin out so that the judges play no part in the decision.
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