According to WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin who has been waiting and waiting for his chance against heavyweight ruler DeontayWilder, the fight will now go to purse bids. Speaking with TASS, the Russian star said talks between his people and Wilder’s people, “failed.”
The purse bid is set for the 26th of this month, and Andrey Ryabinskiy said the fight going to purse bids is “more convenient for us.”
The current heavyweight division seems to be as slow moving as ever – we are still waiting on a definite date for the big Tyson Fury-Wladimir Klitschko rematch and neither British star Anthony Joshua nor David Haye has announced an opponent for their upcoming bout – but fight fans are slowly but surely getting the fights that matter.
When Tyson Fury (25-0-0) defied most odds and came out victorious against Wladimir Klitschko (64-4-0) on November 28th in Düsseldorf, Germany, there were some assumptions and expectations from the boxing community. One of them was that Fury and Klitschko meet again in a rematch. The other one was that Fury would be a different kind of champion, fighting more often and facing anyone and everyone. This appears to be not the case. Right after his victory, Fury stated that he is not interested in fighting Deontay Wilder (35-0-0), because Wilder is simply not a champion fight material, despite his unblemished record and a 97% KO rate.
WBC heavyweight champion, Deontay Wilder, is set to get what amounts to for many, as a ‘stay of execution,’ given mandatory challenger, Alexander Povetkin, has revealed he will not be ready for the proposed January date for their title clash.
Wilder was due to meet his mandatory challenger early next year, although after ‘Sasha’ today dominated Polish challenger, Mariusz Wach – stopping him on a cut in the final round – it was revealed the Russian’s representatives informed the WBC at their annual convention in China, that he will not be ready to meet Wilder until April or May 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmyUwh-m6jk
Results from Russia
VISHKAN MURZABEKOV W KO 3 SOLOMON BOGERE
DMITRY BIVOL W KO 4 JACKSON JUNIOR
EDUARD TROYANOVSKY W TKO 6 CESAR RENE CUENCA
OLANREWAJU DURODOLA W TKO 2 DMITRY KUDRYASHOV
OLA AFOLABI W KO 5 RAKHIM CHAKHKIEV
DENIS LEBEDEV W TKO 8 LATEEF KAYODE
ALEXANDER POVETKIN W TKO 12 MARIUSZ WACH
For a few years now, Wladimir Klitschko (64-3-0) has been expressing great interest in participating in the next Olympic games. While there are a few roadblocks, it seems as though even a professional fighter can qualify.
In October of 2013, Wladimir Klitschko had delivered the very first loss to Alexander Povetkin(29-1-0) in Moscow, Russia. There were no excuses or hard feelings from camp Povetkin, instead stating that they appreciated the fight and have learned a lot from it.
“A rematch will happen. The younger Klitschko cannot stay the champion forever. The first fight was rough, and the loss is still burning Alexander inside. He needs a rematch in order to fix it. Alexander achieved becoming a champion. As far as where the location, Kiev is not right for it. The pressure there will be too high, and Povetkin should avoid fighting there,” said former WBC champion Oleg Maskaev.
The Povetkin vs. Klitschko bout in Moscow, Russia, in October of 2013 generated not only great interest, but also a colossal profit for everyone involved. When it comes to finances, things like venue have to be considered in order to maximize revenue.
Boxing fans are going to have to wait a little awhile before WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33 KOs) defends his WBC title against his mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin. Wilder’s trainer Jay Deas says the Wilder-Povetkin fight likely won’t take place until 2016. He says it takes a lot of time to negotiate big fights against fighters like Povetkin and Tyson Fury.
In the meantime, Wilder will be looking to fight against in three months on September 26th against the likes of Tony Thompson or Chris Arreola. It’s a voluntary defense for Wilder so he’s not going to be fighting a top five contender like Anthony Joshua, Vyacheslav Glazkov or Bryant Jennings.
The main event of the action-packed card at the Luzhniki arena in Moscow last night was the shortest fight of the night. Alexander Povetkin (29-1) sandbagged highly regarded Mike Perez (21-2-1) for half a round and cemented his mandatory WBC spot by winning the WBC Silver heavyweight title. He was already number 1 in the rankings prior to the fight.
Both competitors had notable amateur background. Alexander Povetkin won Olympic gold in Athens and Perez was a successful amateur for the Cuban national team winning the World Junior Championship in 2004. He later grew up to cruiser weight but failed to secure a spot in the national team having mixed success against the top dogs. Irish boxing promoter Gary Hyde spotted him at a tournament and lured Perez into defecting from Cuba. He arranged the prospect’s escape from the Island of Freedom using the services of a Mexican cartel. Perez was required to swim offshore from Cuba and board a cartel vessel in neutral waters and he ended up being hostage for 9 days until Hyde was able to pay what the cartel demanded for Perez’s release.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOxE7sTEQko
I never think the Russian’s do a bad job of putting on a decent show – and tonight’s card from Moscow that was headlined by the extremely brief one round WBC heavyweight final eliminator fight between Alexander Povetkin and Mike Perez, was certainly better than some of the domestic cards offered up as competitive in the UK lately.
If we learned anything, it’s that the current WBC champion Deontay Wilder is potentially in a hell of a lot of trouble!