Having recently decisioned Mahmoud Charr to claim the WBA “regular” heavyweight belt, Kubrat Pulev is now waiting to see if the WBA will allow him to make a voluntary defence of the title, or if he will be ordered to make a mandatory defence. At the ongoing WBA convention, the subject came up.
Pulev, 43 years old and no doubt looking to make the best money as he possibly can as he looks to defend the version of the WBA heavyweight title he now holds (everyone of course knows Oleksandr Usyk is the WBA heavyweight champion), is interested in a fight with Jarrell Miller. However, if the folks as the WBA do not allow the Bulgarian “Cobra” to have this, a voluntary defence, he will be ordered to fight Michael Hunter next.
Hunter is currently ranked WBA number-3, and he will be next for Pulev if the mandatory is in fact ordered. Most newly crowned champions do have the benefit of a voluntary, so we will wait and see whether Pulev is permitted to fight “Big Baby” Miller or not.
It could prove to be an interesting, even fun fight if Pulev, 32-3(14) does fight New Yorker Miller, who is now 36 years of age and is currently 26-1-2(22). Miller was down to fight Derek Chisora in the UK in February, but that fight is not happening and Miller could instead be heading to Bulgaria to fight Pulev.
Miller, a big, strong guy with a good engine, might be too physically imposing as well as too energetic for Pulev, who really does seem to have been around forever. That said, Pulev looked pretty good against Charr, his punch output quite impressive considering his age.
Let’s see which fight is made, if indeed either – Pulev Vs. Miller, or Pulev Vs. Hunter. How long can Pulev hold onto that WBA strap he won on December 7th?
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