By Scott Gilfoid: At this point in Deontay Wilder’s pro career, he looks as close to being unbeatable as you’re ever going to see with a heavyweight world champion. Deontay has breezed through three title defenses since winning the WBC belt last year in January against Bermane Stiverne. While there are some people out there like Lennox Lewis who see Deontay (36-0, 35 KOs) as flawed and vulnerable, there are many more boxing fans that see the towering 6’7” knockout artist as someone who cannot be beaten by anyone right now.
Deontay, 30, will be defending his WBC heavyweight title in two months from now in Russia against former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) in Moscow, Russia at a still to be determined venue.
Povetkin, 36, has knocked out just 71 percent of his opponents in his 11-year pro career, yet there are some people who believe he’s capable of knocking out everybody in the division, even Deontay. I’m not one of them though. I know history, and remember how horrible Povetkin looked in his fights against Wladimir Klitschko, Eddie Chambers, Ruslan Chagaev and Marco Huck.
Povetkin really struggled in those fights, and those are easily the best fighters that he’s faced during his pro career. Even Carlos Takam gave Povetkin all he could handle in their fight in October 2014. There were some moments there were I thought Povetkin was on his way to losing the fight when he finally came alive and scored a knockout in the 10th.
“Wilder will need to be similarly dominant if he is to retain his belt but he has done little since becoming champion to indicate that this will be the case,” said Frank Warren in his column at frankwarren.com. “Lennox Lewis believes Wilder will struggle, suggesting there are many weaknesses in Wilder’s game, and that Povetkin has both the power and experience to dethrone him. He could be right.”
I don’t agree with Lewis, but I can understand how he would have no doubts about Deontay. When you get a young upstart that is knocking everybody out left and right, naturally you want to find flaws in his game and look for the reasons why he’s been knocking out everyone he’s faced.
Deontay has knocked out 97% of his opponents since he turned pro in 2008, and that’s hard thing to come to terms with. When you’ve got a heavyweight champion with that many knockouts, it’s only natural to wonder why he’s knocking everyone out. Well, I don’t think Deontay would have any fewer KOs on his resume if he were matured a little tougher against the likes of David Haye, Tyson Fury, Charles Martin, Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua.
Povetkin was badly exposed in his 12 round decision loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2013 in their fight in 2013. The fight took place in Moscow, Russia in front of Povetkin’s own fans. However, Wladimir was able to take Povetkin’s fans out of the fight by doing some nice jabbing and occasionally holding him to keep him from getting his shots off.
Overall, it was a pretty clean fight by Wladimir. He wasn’t holding like mad or anything like that. He was just occasionally grabbing Povetkin when he would cone in low with his head dangerously close to Wladimir’s. If Wladimir was able to dominate Povetkin like that, then what do you think Deontay will do? He’s in his prime of his career. Wladimir was already on the downside of his career by the time he fought Povetkin, and yet he still clowned him and dropped him four times in the fight.
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