By Jake Donovan
As talks progress and time marches on, Deontay Wilder is forced to play the waiting game. In the meantime, he wants to make one thing perfectly clear about his next career move.
“I want to fight Alexander Povetkin, ASAP,” Wilder (36-0, 35KOs) emphatically stated to BoxingScene.com. “For those who don’t understand, ASAP is as soon as possible. I’m not dumping my belt, I’m not looking for any other fight. Whatever date opens up next, that’s when I want to defend my title against Povetkin.
“Whether it’s April or May, I don’t care. That is who I’m fighting next, and ain’t no other fight on my mind right now.”
The mandatory title fight has been months in the making, though delayed for a number of reason. Talks formally began in late January, with a February 26 deadline in place before the matter would be subject to a purse bid hearing.
Given his long-standing relationship with adviser Al Haymon and the current shift in the heavyweight landscape, rumors swirled of Wilder possibly entertaining the idea of a showdown with newly crowned titlist Charles Martin. Such a move would have required either the World Boxing Council (WBC) granting an exception or Wilder vacating his title.
Martin – who is also advised by Haymon - won the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) title with a 3rd round injury stoppage of Vyacheslav Glazkov on the same January 16 Showtime card that saw Wilder post a highlight reel 9th round knockout of Artur Szpilka.
The pair of heavyweight title fights took place in front of a packed house at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the likely destination for Wilder’s next fight. Potential dates for the fight range from April 16 to May 21, assuming Povetkin agrees to fight in the United States.
Meanwhile, Martin is currently in talks for a voluntary defense versus Anthony Joshua, the 2012 Olympic Gold medalist and current perennial Top 10 heavyweight contender from Great Britain.
Neither fight is yet set in stone, but very much the primary focus for both unbeaten heavyweight titlists. Even if Martin-Joshua doesn’t happen next, it doesn’t change what is on Wilder’s plate.
“My mission is to unify all of the titles in the heavyweight division,” Wilder insists not just of his career goals, but his plans for 2016. “I can’t unify if I’m giving them up as I get them. People can say what they want, but this boy (Povetkin) is all that’s on my mind right now.”
Wilder has longed for big fights dating back to his title-winning effort over Bermane Stiverne last January. The fighting pride of college football-crazed Tuscaloosa, Ala. became the first American heavyweight to own a major title in more than seven years, adding to his current standing as the last male American boxer to claim an Olympic medal, winning the bronze in the 2008 Beijing Games.
At 6’7”, perhaps Wilder doesn’t have much of a choice but to stand out among the crowd. Still, the unbeaten heavyweight takes tremendous pride in a his role as a reigning heavyweight champ.
Critics can say what they want of his three title defenses – knockout wins over Eric Molina, Johann Duhaupas and most recently Szpilka – but all were taken with the intention of remaining active while working out plans for bigger fights. It’s been mission accomplished on the activity front, with the aforementioned trio of knockouts taking place in a span of seven months.
Furthermore, getting the bout with Szpilka in January provides the opportunity to fight no fewer than three times in 2016, perhaps more if Wilder gets his way.
“I’ve been ready to fight Povetkin for a long time,” Wilder promises. “They were the ones who went to the WBC and said they weren’t ready when we wanted the fight (last September and again earlier this year), so I moved on.
“We’ll see what happens I’m hearing different dates and so many different things about this fight, but I know one thing; my side is ready to go.”
How soon the other side will be ready should be revealed within the next week or so.
It can’t take any longer than that, or else the matter will be subject to a purse bid hearing. Perhaps it’s what some involved want to happen, but enough attention is being paid to the needs of both sides to where an open line of communication has remained in hopes of securing a deal in a timely fashion.
“The fight will happen in the spring. I’m very confident of that,” believes Lou DiBella, Wilder’s promoter and the point man on current negotiations. “We have not reached an agreement yet, but hope to in the next coming week or so. We’ve had a bunch of discussions with Andrey Ryabinsky (World of Boxing, Povetkin’s promoter) and they’ve all be very positive.
“Deontay wants this fight and we would love for this fight to take place in the United States. It’s important for the heavyweight division, and quite frankly it’s important for Povetkin. He’s not a youngster and realizes that if he can beat Deontay on American soil, what it would do for his career. He gets to make a splash on the biggest platform possible. It would be very good for the heavyweight division for this fight to take place in the U.S.”
His own bias aside, Wilder believes a springtime showdown with Povetkin at Barclays Center does better for the health of the sport – and for his challenger’s career should he win - than if the fight were to land in Russia.
“If he’s trying to make his stardom, he has to come to the United States,” Wilder says of Povetkin, the 2004 Olympic Gold medalist who has never fought outside of Europe since turning pro in 2005.
Povetkin has long ago established himself as a top heavyweight, but coming up short in his bid to become the very best in the division. That moment serves as the lone loss of his career, a 12-round decision at the hands of then-World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in their foul-filled title fight in Oct. ’13. The bout is part of a current six-fight stretch that has been staged exclusively in his native Russia.
His most recent victory came last November, scoring a 12th round stoppage of Mariusz Wach, a Polish heavyweight whose physical attributes (standing 6’7½”) were seen as proper means for the 6’2” Povetkin to remain active while pursuing the forthcoming title fight versus Wilder.
The fight was part of an expensive card hosted in Kazan by Ryabinsky’s World of Boxing. It is believed that the Russian business mogul has the financial means to win a purse bid and stage the fight wherever he so chooses.
Regardless of where the fight takes place, Wilder is confident of two things: that Povetkin will be his next opponent; and that he will remain unbeaten and still heavyweight champion.
“He hasn’t fought here (in the United States) before, so I hope his team wants to prove themselves and not just go in and think they’re going to buy a heavyweight championship,” Wilder says. “They want a Russian heavyweight champion badly and they’ll do anything to make that happen. At the end of the day, they keep talking about money but your money won’t help you in the ring.
“They can do whatever they want with their money. Once that bell rings, though, it’s just me and (Povetkin) in the ring. Whatever’s going on in their mind, all I have on my mind is beating Alexander Povetkin next, and then going on to unify the rest of this heavyweight division.”
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox