By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) sees his May 21 fight against mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) as being an easy fight for him when the two tangle in Moscow, Russia.
Wilder saw how Povetkin struggled against other tall fighters like him in the past when he was beaten by the 6’6” former world champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2013, and how he struggled last November to beat the slow 6’7 ½” Mariusz Wach.
Povetkin, 6’2”, didn’t have the height and reach to dominate those guys like he’d done most of his career when fighting opposition in the 6’1” to 6’4” range. In the case of the 6’7” Wilder, he’s going to have a huge five inch height and a six inch reach advantage over Povetkin. The reach could be very significant in this fight, because when you’ve got a half foot reach over your opponent, it generally means you’re going to have a great chance of winning.
“I felt like this was going to be an easy fight for me, I really do,” says Wilder to esnewsreporting. “I’m a different breed from all those other heavyweights. Honestly, I don’t think he can fight tall fighters. I’m going off the Klitschko fight, but even the [Mariusz] Wach fight. We’re all going to see what happens on the night of the fight. I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait,” said Wilder.
I have a feeling that Deontay will find this an even easier fight than Wladimir did three years ago with his one-sided win over Povetkin. Deontay is younger, faster taller, and stronger than Wladimir was when he did a job on Povetkin. Further, Povetkin is now older than he was in his loss to Wladimir.
At 36, Povetkin isn’t the spring chicken that he was when he lost to Wladimir. Povetkin is now on his way to 40, and fighting arguably the biggest puncher in the heavyweight division in Deontay. That’s not good for Povetkin because he’s fighting a guy with punching power that he’s never seen before during his career.
That’s not good for Povetkin. He didn’t handle Wladimir’s shots very well in 2013, as he was knocked down four times in that fight. Wladimir only hit Povetkin a handful of times with hard shots, and he was hitting the deck left and right. What this means is that Povetkin doesn’t take a very good shots when fighting tall guys that have the kind of punching power that Wladimir and Deontay have. Povetkin can handle the power from the shorter, weaker guys. He almost didn’t handle the power
from cruiserweight Marco Huck in their fight four years ago in 2012. Huck had Povetkin hurt a number of times in that fight, and Huck only weighed in at 209lbs for that fight. Huck showed that Povetkin can be hurt even by smaller guys.
Deontay will likely be staying on the outside all night long, jabbing and pot shotting Povetkin with right hands like he did in his fight against the 6’2” Bermane Stiverne last year. Stiverne couldn’t reach Wilder with his shots, and it turned out to be an easy fight for Deontay.
Comments are closed.