By Eric Thomas: According to the latest boxing news, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KOs) will be facing his number #1 IBF mandatory challenger unbeaten Alexander Povetkin (19-0, 14 KO’s) on September 11th or September 18th, and possibly in Frankfurt, Germany, if Klitschko wins the purse bid for the fight. This could make a big difference between the fight taking place in a huge 65,000 seat stadium in Germany or in Moscow, Russia, in front of a smaller crowd.

Either way, it’s still a good fight and one of the best opponents that Wladimir has had in quite some time dating back to his win against Samuel Peter back in 2005. However, this isn’t the fight that many boxing fans wanted to see. Many of them wanted to see Klitschko fight WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) in a unification bout.

However, Haye and Wladimir haven’t been able to put together a fight. There are a lot of different rumors going around how Wladimir and his team offered Haye a 50-50 deal for the fight but was turned down. And then there’s talk that Wladimir never offered a 50-50 deal. But it does look like Haye may be fighting 38-year-old Audley Harrison in a stay busy fight. That’s a decent fight and probably a lot better one than the Klitschko-Povetkin bout because Harrison and Haye, both popular fighters in the UK, are pretty evenly matched. Haye has big power but a shaky chin, whereas the 6’5″ Harrison has the huge height, reach and good power, but is often too timid.

Wladimir, 6’6″, will have a four inch height advantage over the 6’2″ Povetkin and will also have a significant power and reach advantage as well. However, Povetkin is a pressure fighter, has decent power and can take a lot of punishment. He may need to take a lot of punishment if he wants to get to Wladimir’s chin and try to take him out with something big. It’s not as easy to knock Klitschko out like it used to. He now fights much more conservatively, fights behind his jab, clinches often and retreats whenever there’s a minute hint of aggression from his often overmatched opponents.

Wladimir uses his powerful jab to control the action and keep his opponents on the outside. Povetkin is going to have to rush Wladimir and try to get in some big shots before Wladimir ties him up. Povetkin isn’t a huge puncher and this could pretty much keep from doing a whole lot against Wladimir. He doesn’t give you many chances to get shots in and when you do have an opportunity, you need power to hurt him.

Povetkin has always been the type of fighter that needs to land a lot of shots in order to take his opponents out. That’s not going to be good for him against Wladimir unless Povetkin’s trainer Teddy Atlas has found some untapped power in Povetkin that he can bring out against Wladimir. I doubt it.