By Luke Furman
Former undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis was ringside a few days ago in Russia, and watched Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) stop Polish giant Mariusz Wach in the twelfth round.
Povetkin is the mandatory challenger to World Boxing Council [WBC] heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (35-0, 34 KOs).
A lot of experts are picking Povetkin to win the contest if the two fighters meet in the ring. Their negotiations are going to be ordered in the next few weeks.
Wilder is going to have a voluntary defense on January 16th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Povetkin plans to sit out until the mandatory fight takes place.
"Deontay could cause him a lot of problems because he has long arms, skillfully moves and boxes from a distance. Against such a style it doesn't make a fight easy. At the same time, however, Wilder still commits a lot of mistakes that Povetkin can use to his advantage," Lewis told Sport Box.
"Povetkin has to avoid straight punches, control [Wilder's] movement. In the fight against Wach he was tested against such things. He has to come up with something to neutralize Wilder's right hand, and then he will be able to win. The opinion of most is that Deontay does not have a good chin. He has skinny legs and that indicates that won't be able to take a real good hit."
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
