By Allan Fox: WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (25-0, 17 KO’s) did a demolition job on the World Boxing Organization’s latest completely lost mandatory in 39-year-old Hasim Rahman (50-8-2, 41 KO’s) in a 2nd round knockout at the Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany. Rahman never hit the canvas in the fight but was staggered on two occasions and took a lot of punishment agaisnt the ropes before the fight was stopped by the referee in the 2nd round.

After the fight, Povetkin said “I’m ready [to fight IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko]. I’ll fight him if I’m told. If the Klitschko bout is confirmed, I’ll start preparing.”

Povetkin didn’t sound like he was really eager to take on the 6’6″ Wladimir judging by his comments. He’s had chances to fight Wladimir in the past but was injured on one occasion and opted not to fight him on another. Wladimir kind of lost interest in facing Povetkin at all after this and has put his energy into fighting other guys.

At this point in time what little interest there ever was in this fight is probably gone for many people. With the Russian born Povetkin fighting the majority of his fights out of Germany now, he’s got a significant fan base over there and the German fans would probably like to see a fight between Povetkin and Wladimir, if not the rest of the world.

If Wladimir doesn’t face Povetkin soon then eventually Povetkin will probably be beaten by one of the top contenders like Kubrat Pulev. It’ll take a while before Pulev or one of the other dangerous contenders slide into the mandatory spot to face Povetkin so we could see Povetkin facing a run of weak heavyweights along the same lines as Rahman for the next couple of years unless Wladimir takes the fight with him.

The current WBA heavyweight rankings are as follows: #2 David Haye, #3 Luis Ortiz, #4 Denis Boytsov, #5 Alexander Ustinov, #6 Kubrat Pulev, #7 Ruslan Chagaev.

Haye won’t bother fighting Povetkin, so you have to consider the #2 spot vacant right now. Luis Ortiz is another easy mark for Povetkin in the Rahman mold. Boytsov is a good heavyweight, but not in the same class as Povetkin. Ustinov was just beaten so he’s out. Pulev is good enough to beat Povetkin, but he might not get a shot against him for a couple of years given that Povetkin will likely take lower level contenders for his optional title defenses in between facing his mandatory challengers. I think it’s safe to say that Povetkin won’t volunteer to face Pulev.