This weekend sees a massed coming together of the big boppers, with two world titles being fought for, and a return to the ring of a former favourite son. Far and away the most important of these three clashes, will be the Wilder - Szpilka affair. The WBC Champ Deontay Wilder will be out to make his third defence of the belt he ripped from Bermane Stiverne in mid January last year. Wilder goes in with a massive advantage in reach, and height, but weights will be about the same. About the only thing the No 8 ranked, Polish fighter has in his favour is his southpaw stance, but that's not expected to any real problem for Wilder who'll start a pronounced favourite. It should be a one sided affair.
The other World Heavyweight Title fight (on the same card) between a couple of B grade fighters Vyacheslav Glazkov and Charles Martin IBF clash promises to be a much more willing encounter. The Ukrainian man has to spot the American a large reach advantage, he comes in a couple of stone lighter, and is shorter, but is all attack. He's like a pitbull on a mission. He had 7 fights in 2015. Both fighters are undefeated, but Martin seems to be slightly the bigger puncher. To counter this, Glazkov has never been off his feet. Despite all the disadvantages the smaller man takes into the ropes, he looks to start a slight favourite. The prize money for both men is piss poor. Being the higher rated fighter, Glazkov will get US$ 804,700 and Martin US$ 433,300. God knows what they'll be left with once the taxman, coaches and investors take their cut. Expenses have to be deducted as well.
And then we have the long awaited return of the ex champion David Haye. After three and a half years of inactivity, he'll climb into the ring against the little known Australian Mark de Mori. There's a chance that the Aussie will step into the ring at somewhere around 250 pounds which would be a massive advantage, especially if Haye shows up around his usual 215. But the word is that he'll be a lot heavier fighter now. Age and extra weight might slow him down a little, but he should be able to blast his challenger out of there in pretty quick time. But where does he go from there? Where does UK Heavyweight boxing go in 2016? From what I've been reading, the US are mapping out plans among themselves. Fury is the lineal champion and one of the two "real" fighters at the moment, the other being Wilder, but where does this leave the UK? How do they get at the other belts while keeping Furys? You can bet your life that which ever promoter wins that IBF belt, they won't be keen to send it across the pond. Martin is already talking about more American fights, while Glazkov is saying he wants to take his belt back to Russia. And in time, will other belts be stripped from Fury because he wants to fight the best and in return be paid serious money?