WBA says Povetkin vs. Price winner should be Joshua’s NEXT opponent

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid

WBA president Gilberto Mendoza has told Sky Sports that the winner of this Saturday’s fight between #1 WBA Alexander Povetkin and David Price will be the mandatory challenger to WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, and they should come next for him unless he faces WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in a unification fight.

This is bad news for Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, because it means Joshua’s next fight after Saturday’s unification fight will be against the winner of the Povetkin-Price fight. Hearn is not interested in making the Joshua vs. Wilder fight right now, which is why he’s been pushing hard for Wilder to face Dillian Whyte in June in London, England. Povetkin will almost surely be the winner of Saturday’s fight with Price, so Hearn is going to need to start putting that fight together straightaway if the World Boxing Association president Mendoza is serious about wanting Joshua to face Povetkin next.

“[Joshua vs. Povetkin] is supposed to be the next fight. I should be,” WBA president Mendoza said to skysports.com. ”We would have to think about a unification fight, but regularly Povetkin should be his next opponent. We will try to enforce [Povetkin] as much as we can.”

So, there it is. Joshua will need to fight the 38-year-old Povetkin next, as long as both fighters win their matches this Saturday night. Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) has the much harder job of the two in facing unbeaten WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Parker isn’t a huge puncher that Wladimir Klitschko was, but he’s got enough power and stamina to weaken Joshua and knock him out. Boxing is a cardio sport, and Joshua isn’t really designed for the high-paced fights that Parker is involved in. Joshua is more of a short duration righter, who plows through stationary, slow and badly over-matched foes. Joshua has fought one mobile fighter in his entire career, and that was 41-year-old Klitschko.

Despite what the WBA president Mendoza says about wanting the Joshua-Povetkin fight to be next, Hearn will probably still look to push that fight back until the end of the year in December. That means that Joshua likely won’t be fighting Deontay Wilder in 2018, because Hearn wants to match Joshua against Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller in the summer.

Povetkin’s promoter Vadim Kornilov wants the Joshua-Povetkin to take place in Moscow, Russia at the 81,000 seat Luzniki Stadium. Not surprisingly, Hearn wants the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight to take place in the UK in one of the stadiums.

“I think it would be comparable,” Kornilov said to skysports.com about Joshua-Povetkin taking place in a Moscow. ”Wladimir was paid almost £20m to fight Povetkin, so anything can be generated. This has that type of magnitude. It would be a huge fight in Russia, but after speaking to Eddie, it would be a huge fight in [the UK] too.”

It sounds nice for the Joshua vs. Povetkin fight to take place in beautiful Moscow. That’s like staging the fight in New York. It’ll be nice. Hopefully, Hearn doesn’t drag his feet over staging it Moscow. If Hearn believes in Joshua, then he should be able to win wherever the fight is staged. I mean, Deontay Wilder was ready to defend his WBC title against Povetkin in 2016. Wilder wasn’t afraid to go over there and defend his title in front of a large crowd of Povetkin supporters. Joshua should be up for it too.Wladimir went to Moscow and beat Povetkin in front of his own fans five years ago in winning a dominant 12 round unanimous decision. That was when Povetkin was a little younger and fighting at a higher level than he is now. Povetkin hasn’t looked that great in his last two fights against Christian Hammer and Andriy Rudenko. The speed and power of Povetkin aren’t what they once were when he fought Wladimir. Joshua, 28, is a lot younger than Wladimir was when he fought Povetkin. Wladimir was 36-years-old. If the 6’5” 245 lb. Joshua can’t do the job against the older, smaller 6’2” 225 lb. Povetkin with all of his advantages, then he shouldn’t be world champion.

Price is facing an opponent that is well above his level in Povetkin. Price has shown no ability to take heavy shots from guys with moderate punching power. Price has suffered knockout losses to Erkan Teper, Christian Hammer and Tony Thompson. None of those guys are considered big punchers, and yet they were still able to knockout Price. Povetkin, 38, isn’t a huge puncher either, but he hits harder than those guys. If Price doesn’t use his size to try and smash Povetkin early, it’s going to end badly for him. Whatever punch resistance Price once had early in his career seems to have evaporated with age, although he’s far from being old at 34. For some unknown reason, Price’s punch resistance doesn’t appear to be what it once was, and his conditioning has been horrible.

Price, 34, says he’s not worried about Povetkin’s past failed drug tests. He feels he’s going to be clean for the fight, because there’s too much to lose if he tests positive with him being Joshua’s WBA mandatory.

“Povetkin has had issues in the past but for that reason I don’t believe it will be an issue,” Price said to ESPN.com. “He’s had two positive tests and now there’s so much on the line — the mandatory place to fight Anthony Joshua — so I don’t think it’s an issue. t’s not a problem for me to think about. Beggars can’t be choosers, I’m being given the opportunity when I really need it and I don’t think he will risk another positive test.”

Price is going to have to come screaming out of the gate the moment the fight starts, and look to bum rush Povetkin right away like he used to do with his other opponents. If Price doesn’t get Povetkin out of there in the first two rounds of the fight, I don’t see him making it to round 3. This fight has early knockout written all over it. I hate to say it, but I see Price getting knocked out by the 2nd round if he doesn’t get to Povetkin’s chin right away. Povetkin can take a pretty good shot without getting hurt.

Wladimir had Povetkin down four times in their fight in 2013, but he was shoving him and most of the knockdowns looked like they were either shoves or situations where Povetkin was off balance. Price does have the power to hurt Povetkin if he unloads on straightaway like he did against Matt Skelton, Tom Dallas and Audley Harrison. Those fights should be the blueprint for Price in how to beat Povetkin. I don’t think it’ll work for Price to bum rush Povetkin, but I believe it’s his best chance of winning. If Price had a good chin and reasonably good stamina, I would recommend that he slowly break Povetkin down before going for a knockout in the second half of the fight. But unfortunately for Price, his conditioning is dreadful and his punch resistance is not where it should be for him to take Povetkin’s hard shots. Anything that Povetkin throws that hits Price above the shoulders will have him in serious danger of being knocked out on Saturday.

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