Klitschko wins purse bid for Povetkin bout – New

By Dan Ambrose: IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s promotional company K2 Promotions won the purse bid today over Sauerland Events, the promotional company for Wladimir’s next challenger Alexander Povetkin, outbidding them two to one in a winning bid of $8,313,000 compared to Sauerland’s bid of $4,250,001. What this means to the average isn’t all that much, unless you live in Germany are looking forward to seeing Wladimir fight Povetkin in that location. That’s precisely where Wladimir will be fighting the unbeaten Povetkin. It will likely take place in one of the large football stadiums where Wladimir and his brother WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko have been fighting recently. The Klitschko-Povetkin bout will take place on either September 11th or the 18th.

Wladimir will get the large split of the revenue, 75% compared to 25% for Povetkin. Wladimir will end up getting $6,234,770 compared to Povetkin’s $2,078,250. This isn’t bad money for Povetkin, who hasn’t done much in the ring since 2008, and has fought mostly 2nd tier opponents since winning the IBF heavyweight eliminator tourney with wins over Eddie Chambers and Chris Byrd.

Wladimir, 34, had been hoping to get a fight with WBA heavyweight champion David Haye for a big money unification bout. However, Haye has been taking it easy since defending his WBA title against John Ruiz on April 3rd, and it looks as if Haye isn’t ready for a fight against Wladimir or his brother Vitali at this time. Haye will likely fight British heavyweight Audley Harrison next or one of the top contenders to his title, such as Ruslan Chagaev.

In his last fight, Wladimir stopped Eddie Chambers in the 12th round in March. Wladimir dominated the fight with his jabs and right hand. In the 12th, with urging from his trainer Emanuel Steward, Wladimir went after Chambers and knocked him out with a big left hook to the head.

Povetkin is coming off a 5th round stoppage win over Javier Mora in March. Before that, Povetkin has defeated Leo Nolan, Jason Estrada, and Taurus Sykes in his recent fights. Povetkin seems to have been taking it easy since winning the IBF eliminator, not wanting to take chances. However, Povetkin, 6’2”, is going to be taking a big step up in facing the 6’6” Klitschko and you have to wonder whether Povetkin will be up to the task. He’s not a big puncher by any means and needs to land a lot of shots to get his opponents out. The problem is he’s not very big, not very strong and will have to hope that Wladimir runs out of gas for him to have a chance.

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