Alexander Povetkin vs. Andriy Rudenko & Eduard Troyanovsky vs Michele Di Rocco RBR.

Give me a break! I've seen you defend Wilder countless times and argue with his detractors. You stated that... That's correct. A silly assertion with little weight behind it, and outright stupid if you like at Wilders track record since he won the WBC strap. He does not stop his opponents early, he certainly didn't stop Szpilka and Duhaupas early who are at the same level as Rudenko. Wilder is a complete disgrace. Get over it fanboy.

 

The only time I've defended Wilder was when people blamed him for the Pov fight not happening. I never once defended his record or said he fought top level opposition! In fact, when the Pov fight was announced, I commented that I hope this was the start of a trend for Wilder fighting a better class of opponent. Anyway, no need for us to get hostile! My initial post was a half ass attempt at trolling. I fully understand, much like yourself I'm sure, that styles make fights! If that isn't the truth, then Foreman would have destroyed Ali in side 2 rounds.

 

This is just an unrealistic prediction based on Wilder's past few performances and what we know about Rudenko's punch resistance and all-round resilience. It's true that had Wilder chosen Rudenko over Washington he'd have been labelled another bum, but that's to be expected at this point and doesn't detract from Rudenko's trickiness as a fighter, as anyone in the know could have told you.

That Povetkin failed to get the stoppage is no indication of any slippage on his part. Rudenko's got great survival skills and took multiple shots from Povetkin that would have KOed other fighters, including a guy like Duhaupas who was able to hang with Wilder for eleven rounds without going down but got stone cold dropped by Povs. I thought it was about as fine a performance as you can expect, and my only criticism of Povetkin was that he seemed a bit too repetitive and predictable in his attacks, favouring multiple left hand hook combinations when it seemed clear he could have got more success with a two-fisted attack and a greater variety of attack angles.