By Igor Lazorin, tass
Ivan Kirpa, trainer of Olympic gold medal winner and former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin, is already studying the recent fights of WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Povetkin will challenge Wilder for the world title in a mandatory fight.
The Russian fighter's promoter, Andrei Ryabinsky, is planning to stage the fight on May 21 in Moscow, Russia. Ryabinsky secured the promotional rights by winning last month's WBC purse bid with a submitted amount of $7.1 million.
Kirpa has been looking at Wilder's last three fights. Wilder won the WBC championship last January with a twelve round decision over Bermane Stiverne. He retained the title three times since the win. This past January at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Wilder knocked out Artur Szpilka in nine rounds. Povetkin and Ryabinsky traveled over to sit ringside and watch Wilder live.
After studying varies fights, Kirpa has identified numerous flaws that Wilder displays over and over again.
"I know the weaknesses of Wilder. He has flaws," said Kirpa. "He is very powerful and very fast. He has a few powerful punches that are explosive. Alexander also understands this, that there are flaws [in Wilder]. They can be seen even when he punches...the way he positions his right hands, he sticks his head in. You can not help him [land his punches] in any way, so you have to try to deny him any space so that Wilder does not have time to put together a fierce attack."
"We have been studying Wilder and taking notes of the mistakes. Some of the good fights for us, as a trainer, I've studied his fights with Molina, Duhaupas, Szpilka. He showed those weaknesses [in those fights]. We are now at a period where we are watching his fights and conducting a full analysis."
Wilder has an unbeaten record of 36 wins (35 by KO), and Povetkin has 30 wins (22 by KO) and one defeat.
