By Cliff Rold
Sometimes you do everything right and it doesn’t work out.
Many assumed WBC heavyweight Deontay Wilder (36-0, 35 KO) would avoid mandatory contender Alexander Povetkin, especially if Team Povetkin won a purse bid and forced the fight to Povetkin’s native Russia. He didn’t avoid it. He took the fight, signed the contract, and was in camp overseas.
Win or lose, Wilder was set to answer the skeptics.
There have been skeptics about throughout the career of the 2008 Olympic heavyweight bronze Medalist. Given a short amateur career, Wilder was managed from early on as a project and brought along carefully. As part of the Al Haymon machine, he didn’t have to take risks to get a title shot or become a sanctioning body contender.
He racked up stats, got a mandatory shot at a title, and the dice was rolled. Against then-titlist Bermane Stiverne, Wilder hinted there was more to him than just an athletic puncher. He went twelve rounds after never having been past four and used his jab and feet as much as anything to win.
His first two defenses weren’t a ton more than he’d faced on his way up. Their upside was they proved more durable, giving him what had been missing since he made his pro debut in 2008: rounds.
That new accumulation of experiences wasn’t going to hurt him against Povetkin. The 2004 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist and former WBA professional beltholder was set to be his stiffest test. If Wilder could win, on the road, excitement about potential clashes with World champion Tyson Fury, IBF titlist Anthony Joshua, and others in the new emerging heavyweight field would be earned.
Then the results came in. Povetkin, after passing three previous VADA tests, failed a test in late April for a recently banned PED believed to aid fighters in some of the same ways EPO does. There is still debate on the science but an awful lot of athletes have tested positive for melodnium recently. They haven’t been taking it for nothing.
There could be a lot of speculation about what happened with Povetkin’s test. Ignore them. We’re long past the point where the alibis of athletes can be accepted once test results are in. This isn’t tennis or golf. This is a sport where people can and do take tremendous physical punishment. Death is always possible.
Given that the benefits of any PED can last longer than a cycle of taking them, Wilder’s camp (if not according to some reports the fighter himself) did the only thing they could. They didn’t gamble their charge against a potentially enhanced foe. Anyone saying they should have done otherwise isn’t worth talking to.
Wilder, according to his test results and willingness to do something skeptics said he wouldn’t, did everything right and it still came out wrong. Povetkin’s team may try to reschedule the fight but this failed test should push him to the back of the line until he can prove not only that he’s clean but that he has been clean for an extended period of time.
Without a Povetkin fight, Wilder is left as he was. He’s a fighter with a belt, very few notable wins, and still plenty of skeptics about his in-ring worth. He isn’t likely to just sit on the shelf nor should he. He needs a dance partner, and one who brings some of the same risk Povetkin did.
It says here that foe could emerge this Saturday. Like Povetkin, he is a former WBA heavyweight titlist. He is also a former lineal cruiserweight champion. David Haye (27-2, 25 KO) makes the second appearance of his comeback in London against undefeated Arnold Gjergjaj (29-0, 21 KO). He is expected to win.
Haye is an attractive opponent for just about anyone at heavyweight. He’s got name value, he’s still got speed and power, and he helps to sell any fight he’s in. Even aged, and shaking off the rust, Haye is dangerous.
That’s what made Wilder-Povetkin intriguing. There was real danger both ways and no one could be sure who would win. Wilder-Haye would have the same ingredients. It would be a big fight, an anticipated fight, and build logically into even more big fights over the next year.
The next man up in the WBC ratings is Stiverne, a rematch no one really wants to see. Just below him is Kubrat Pulev, a former title challenger who would test Wilder. He wouldn’t put as many butts in the seats or build as boldly into the future.
If we aren’t going to get Wilder-Povetkin, Wilder-Haye would be a hell of a replacement later this year. Consider this a banged drum for a healthy alternative.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
