The clock is ticking for Evgeny Romanov – a Russian heavyweight wrecking ball who once took out Deontay Wilder – after he fell off the radar.
Former champion Wilder has lost eight fights in the last fifteen years on his way to an Olympic bronze medal and WBC title. Romanov is one of only seven men to beat the American puncher.
Wilder lost six amateur bouts in total. And if you go by the statistics, only one was a stoppage – to Romanov.
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That reverse is the solitary time Wilder did not hear the final bell himself before Tyson Fury came along. Romanov was able to get Wilder out of there during the run-up to the 2008 Olympics.
Caught by an overhand right, followed by two more for good measure, Wilder was downed and subsequently pulled out by the referee.
Romanov would eventually fail to qualify for Beijing. He then remained in the amateur ranks until 2010.
Amazingly, the Russian then took a six-year hiatus from the sport. Enticed out of retirement to turn pro in 2016, Romanov hasn’t looked back, but he’s fast running out of time.
He was taken the distance three times in his first seven bouts. But Romanov has since become something of a wrecking ball. Eight of his last eleven opponents have fallen.
Evgeny Romanov drops off the heavyweight radar
Boasting a CV of 18-0 with 12 KOs, Romanov has been rated in both the heavyweight and bridgerweight rankings. However, now he’s rated nowhere by the WBC and will be pushing forty by the time he gets anywhere near a title shot.
Romanov was once ranked higher than top contenders Joe Joyce, Zhilei Zhang, and Filip Hrgovic and was a shoo-in to gain a title shot. That is no longer the case.
It makes you wonder why he waited so long to enter the top-division race, as he’s almost got zero chance of winning anything significant.
Maybe that was why he dropped to bridgerweight [200 to 224 pounds] when the WBC announced the new division. But a big surprise came in August when the top 26 got confirmed, and Romanov was nowhere to be seen.
It looked as though Romanov would be sanctioned quickly for a bridgerweight title shot. That honor went to Lukasz Rozanski and Alen Babic, with the former scoring a KO.
Glancing through every sanctioning body’s ratings, Romanov doesn’t appear on a single list. It’s a significant fall from grace for a heavyweight contender who was on the verge of glory just a few years ago.
Fighting just twice in the last 27 months, Romanov did win in March against Chris Thompson around the bridgerweight limit. Therefore, getting dumped by the WBC was merely down to the ongoing battle between his country of Russia and neighbors Ukraine.
Both divisions are considerably lighter without the talented puncher, who has little time left to make his expected impact.
Phil Jay is an experienced boxing news writer.
