Deontay Wilder will attempt to make a tenth successful defence of his WBC heavyweight world title when he rematches Luis Ortiz on Saturday night.
The 34-year-old American has undoubtedly come a long way from his days as a naïve amateur when he was rushed into the US Olympic team with less than three years of boxing experience under his belt.
As a professional, Wilder is unbeaten with a record of 42-0-1 (41 KOs).
However, he of course did suffer defeats while learning his trade, with his most recent loss coming on August 22, 2008 at the semi-final stage of the Beijing Olympics where he was beaten on points by Italy’s Clemente Russo.
Wilder’s last stoppage loss, though, came six months earlier, on February 29, 2008, when he travelled to Novosibirsk for a Russia vs USA competition and met Evgeny Romanov.
Romanov, three months older than Wilder, was one of the Soviets’ top young heavyweights at the time, winning silver at the 2008 Russian Championships before picking up gold in 2009.
Although the pair are both now heavyweights, they were cruiserweights when they fought and competed at the 91kg (200lbs) limit.
The skinnier 6ft 7ins Wilder towered over his 6ft opponent, but the shorter, stockier man came out on top, forcing the referee to stop the contest in round three.
From the opening bell, Wilder began the bout in control and led 4-2 on the amateur point-scoring system after round one.
In the second, Romanov had an effective answer for everything the American threw as he responded to almost every attack with swift, instant counter-punches.
At the end of the round, Wilder was forced to take a standing count after a strong right hand from the Russian cemented the turnaround and put him 10-7 up on points.
Then came the third and final round, in which Romanov followed up on his attacks and staggered Wilder with another straight right, forcing a second standing count.
This time the away fighter did not have enough time to fully recover and was subsequently smashed to the canvas by two further clean punches.
The referee decided he’d seen enough and ended the bout with less than a minute remaining.
Now, Romanov has followed Wilder into the professional ranks and is slowly building up his own record.
The 34-year-old turned pro in 2016 and has made it to 14-0 (10 KOs) with his fights taking place solely inside Russia thus far.
It appears unlikely he will go on to match his old foe’s achievements of becoming a world champion, but Romanov should not be completely written off because of his age and may be involved in some notable clashes in the coming years.
