By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder (36-0, 35 KOs) says it never entered into his mind to vacate his WBC title after promotional team lost the purse bid to the promoters for his mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) last week.
With Wilder’s management losing the purse bid, it means that Povetkin’s promoters can stage the fight in Russia if they so please. That will put Wilder in a position where he might need to do something extraordinary in the ring to make sure he walks out of the arena with his title.
Deontay says he’s won the WBC title for his daughter, and he’s not just give it away. Deontay didn’t say whether his adviser Al Haymon spoke to him or not about him giving up the WBC title. I doubt it because he would know how much the title means to him, and besides that, it wouldn’t help Deontay to give up the title. He would still need to fight some other tough opponents in order to win their title belts. There’s no easy outs nowadays at the top of the division like it used to be.
“If you think I’m giving up my title you’re crazy… Y’all forget that I didn’t win this title for me,” Wilder said on his Twitter. “I promised my daughter I would be a champ. This belt belongs to her so I’ll fight whoever and wherever to make sure it stays with her,” said Deontay.
The date for the Wilder-Povetkin fight hasn’t yet been settled. Povetkin’s promoter Andrey Ryabinsky will need to come up with a venue and date for the fight. It’s expected that he’ll give the details within a month, and the fight will happen soon after. They have three months to make the fight. That means that the fight could happen in May at the latest.
Deontay has already defended his WBC title three times since winning the belt against Bermane Stiverne in January of last year. Deontay has since beat Eric Molina, Johann Duhaupas and Artuz Szpilka. Deontay looked great in all three fights in showing the talent that he has in his game.
What the 6’2” Povetkin has going against him is his limited height, advanced age, and his poor hand speed. Povetkin is a small heavyweight, and he probably would be better off if he were fighting in the cruiserweight division rather than at heavyweight, because he doesn’t have the size to dominate in the heavyweight division. There are too many fighters with better size than him, and it’s going to be very tough on him to try and match up with Deontay when the fight eventually happens.
Povetkin earn the mandatory spot by beating Manuel Charr, Mike Perez and Carlos Takam. Those are good fighters, but no one that Deontay wouldn’t likely beat with ease as well if he had fought them.
The winner of the Deontay-Povetkin fight will have the opportunity to eventually fight a unification fight against the likes of Tyson Fury, Charles Martin or Anthony Joshua. Those heavyweights aren’t going to want to sit and milk their titles year after year against weak fodder opposition the way that Wladimir Klitschko did during his title as the undisputed heavyweight champion.
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