Kubrat Pulev vs. Samuel Peter this Saturday, Dec.3

BoxingNews.com

By Scott Gilfoid: The highly ranked #2 IBF, #3 WBC, #10 WBO, #11 WBA, heavyweight contender Kubrat Pulev (23-1, 12 KOs) will be facing 36-year-old former WBC heavyweight champion Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter (36-5, 29 KOs) in a scheduled 12 round fight this Saturday night on December 3 for the vacant WBA Inter-Continental heavyweight title at the Arena Armeec, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

15,000 fans are expected to show up on Saturday night to watch Pulev try and dispatch former WBC champion Peter. It would be a real pity for Pulev’s loyal boxing fans if Peter knocks him cold on Saturday night. Gilfoid wouldn’t be surprised in the least if that happens.

(Photo Credit: Team Sauerland)

Judging by Peter’s recent fights, he still appears to have his monstrous punching power intact. What seems to be missing is Peter’s conditioning. He weighed 291 pounds for his fight against Ron Aubrey in September 2014, and 261 in his last fight against Juan Carlos Salas (6-8) last October. Peter weighed in the low 240s during the prime of his career when he was fighting the likes of Wladimir Klitschko, Jeremy Williams, Yanqui Diaz, Gilbert Martinez, Charles Shufford and James Toney.

If Peter comes into the Pulev fight weighing in the 260s or higher, then it’s doubtful he’ll win. Heck, it’s already a long shot that Peter will beat Pulev, because he’s not beaten eight years since his 6th round knockout win over former WBC heavyweight champion Oleg Maskaev in March 2008. That was a long, long time ago. The guys that Peter has beaten since the Maskaev fight have been weaker fighters like Gabe Browne, Ronald Bellamy, Marcus McGree, Nagy Aguilera, Aubrey and Salas. Peter’s best wins of his career came against James Toney, Maskaev, Jameel McCline, Jeremy Williams, and Shufford.

It’s a strange fight if you ask me, because Peter stopped being a factor in the heavyweight division in 2009 after losing to Eddie Chambers by a 10 round decision. That was Peter’s second straight loss at the time, as he’d been beaten in his previous fight against Vitali Klitschko by an 8th round stoppage in October 2008. Vitali came out of a four-year retirement to defeat Peter to capture his WBC heavyweight title. Vitali then held the belt for the next four years in defending it nine times successfully before retiring after beating Manuel Charr in 2012.

“My only prediction is a strong and spectacular victory for Bulgaria,” said Pulev.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Peter knocks Pulev out in this fight. If Peter can land one of his bombs, he could get Pulev out of there. Peter, 6’2”, would need to close the distance to get close enough to the 6’4 ½” Pulev to unload one of his big right hand shots. Pulev will be jabbing from the outside and moving around to avoid getting hit by Peter.

The 35-year-old Pulev can do better than Samuel Peter. Pulev has been taking it easy since losing to IBF World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by a 5th round knockout in their fight in November 2014. Since that fight, Pulev has beaten Georgia Arias, Maurice Harris and Dereck Chisora. Arias and Harris were journeyman level fighters.

Chisora is technically a contender in the heavyweight division, but I consider him more of a journeyman than a true contender. I mean, you can’t throw Chisora into the ring with a decent heavyweight and expect him to win. To me, I think Chisora doesn’t rate to be being a top 15 contender. Pulev was wise to pick him out for yet another tune-up fight to get him ready for a shot at a world title.

Pulev is a pretty flawed heavyweight. I don’t know if he’s good enough to beat any of the champions or even the top contender in the top five in the division. I just don’t see Pulev having that kind of talent.

Pulev’s trainer Ulli Wegner is working on fixing the flaws in his game. I don’t know if Wegner can work miracles though. Pulev is lacking in punching power. That’s going to be a problem for him no matter what Wegner can do to improve his game. Without the punching power, Pulev isn’t going to go far in the heavyweight division, especially at 35. He’s not exactly young anymore.

“Mr. Wegner has a great eye for detail and a tremendous knowledge of boxing,” said Pulev. “Together we work hard to eliminate any small errors and to improve my strengths.”

I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw from Pulev in his last fight against Chisora last May. Pulev looked very average to me in beating Chisora by a 12 round split decision in Hamburg, Germany. I scored it as a fairly one-sided 12r round unanimous decision. I’m not sure which fight the referee was watching that scored it 115-113 in Chisora’s favor. That was a sad score. If you watched the fight, Pulev dominated Chisora from start to finish in a one-sided match. Chisora was too short to land his power shots, and the fight turned out to be something of a bore to watch.

I don’t think it’s going to be boring on Saturday night when Samuel Peter gets inside the ring with Pulev. He’ll be trying to take Pulev’s head off with every punch he throws. As long as Peter is motived and in shape, it could make for an interesting match. However, I don’t know whether Peter will be motivated and in shape for this fight. Those are unknowns.

Peter did not look motivated in his second fight against Wladimir in 2010 or in his losses to Robert Helenius and Vitali Klitschko. Peter had the appearance of someone that didn’t want to be there for those fights. It’s got to be tough for Peter to be in the ring with fighters that are so much taller than him.

Pulev will have a 2 ½” inch reach advantage over Peter. Whether that will make it tough for Peter to land his power shots is the big question. If Peter can stay calm, work his way in punching range against Pulev, he could knock him out. As we saw in Pulev’s fight against Klitschko, he’s got a shaky chin.