In Miami today, a purse bid was held for the mandated heavyweight title fight between WBC champion Deontay Wilder and challenger Alexander Povetkin. The purse bid for this battle was a topic of much discussion, as Povetkin is promoted by one of the wealthiest promoters in all of boxing.
Ryabinskiy famously outbid the Klitschko camp a few years back when Povetkin fought the former heavyweight champ, so Ryabinksiy outbidding the Wilder camp and sending the fight to Russia would not surprise many.
However, what happened in Miami today was surprising in another sense. What occurred in Miami today could be a sign of Al Haymon and the PBC willing to let Wilder fight in Russia and/or the fact that they are indeed running out of money. The Povetkin team, World of Boxing, won the purse bid with an offer of $7.15 million, the only other offer was from the promoter of Wilder, Lou Dibella, bidding $5.1 million.
Some observers were expecting a purse bid from the Povetkin team close to $30 million. However, the willingness and desire for Haymon to spend money keeping this fight in the states were simply not there, and now Deontay Wilder will have to travel to Russia to defend his belt, or else choose to vacate.
Wilder has now been put in a situation where many of his critics expect him to vacate and continue to take easy fights, yet this is most likely far from true. With Fury needing to rematch vs. Klitschko, and Martin fighting Joshua, Wilder has no other choice than to fight Povetkin in Russia, which is something I believe he has firmly intended to do for quite some time.
In my opinion, Wilder has always been a nightmare matchup for Povetkin. Wilders length and constant jabbing will bother Povetkin and prevent him from getting inside. Can Povetkin knock Wilder out? Sure, easily. Yet, he does not have the power many people think he has, because even if Wilders’ chin is susceptible to the big punch: does Povetkin have one punch knockout power?
Only time will tell and answer all of those questions, but one thing is for sure: the ball is now in the Haymon/PBC court to not mess this up for Wilder, because if the fight does not happen, it will most likely be because of Haymon, which would only hurt Wilder, who needs to travel.
All champs have to defend in hostile territory, and after three consecutive title defenses in the states, it is time for Wilder to go into somebody else’s house and silence a crowd. Another reason we should be glad the fight is in Russia is due to the atmosphere of the fight being far more electric in Russia than it would be in a place such as Vegas or New York.
So there you have it: Wilder vs. Povetkin will be in Russia; and I can already hear the people who were on the fence for who to pick for this fight, picking Povetkin by brutal KO in front of his hometown fans.
