By Dan Ambrose: Next Saturday night in Moscow, Russia, IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (60-3, 51 KO’s) has a decent test in WBA champion Alexander Povetkin (26-0, 18 KO’s) on October 5th. For Wladimir, this could a really easy fight because Povetkin is small, slow, not powerful and he lacks stamina to fight hard without gasping for breath.
Povetkin has never been in with anyone half as good as Wladimir, and this is going to be a huge step up for the 34-year-old Povetkin. He probably would have been beaten long ago had he fought good opponents.
It’s really been a long time since Povetkin was in with a good opponent because the last 5 years, Povetkin’s promoters have been taking it easy on him by putting him in with weak opposition.
Povetkin even struggled to beat WBO cruiserweight Marco Huck last year in February. Povetkin got the win by a 12 round majority decision, but just as easily could have lost that fight because it was one of those bouts that could have gone either. Before his fight with Huck, Povetkin hadn’t faced a quality fighter since his win over Eddie Chambers in 2008.
Povetkin did beat guys like Ruslan Chagaev, Hasim Rahman and Nicolai Firtha since then, but those guys aren’t really the best in the heavyweight division. Rahman and Chagaev were decent heavyweights at one point in their careers, but not when Povetkin fought them.
That’s the whole problem with Povetkin. He just hasn’t been fighting good opponents during his career, and he’s not a big heavyweight to begin with at 6’2”, 228. He’s more of a cruiserweight than a real heavyweight because he lacks the size and power.
In his last fight, Povetkin took an easy title defense against a Polish fighter named Andrzej Wawrzyk last May. Povetkin ended up stopping Wawrzyk in the 3rd round, but the fight didn’t give Povetkin any real practice what he’s going to be dealing with against Wladimir because Wawrzyk was like a punching bag.
It was pretty shocking how bad Wawrzyk was, and also pretty sad that Povetkin’s promoters chose to match him against this type of an opponent. There’s been zero preparation for Povetkin to get him ready for what he’s going to face against Wladimir next Saturday.
You can’t count past Povetkin opponents like 40-year-old Rahman, Marco Huck, 44-year-old Cedric Boswell, Firtha, Leo Nolan or Jason Estrada. It’s just strange that Povetkin’s promoters kept him fighting weak opponents for so many years. You can take away all of Povetkin’s wins against weak opponents you’ll be left with 2 decent guys in Huck and Eddie Chambers. And even those guys aren’t even close to being as good as Wladimir.
Wladimir hasn’t been facing tough opposition lately either, but he has beaten good heavyweights like Tony Thompson and David Haye in the last 2 years, and that’s much better than the guys that Povetkin has been facing.
I would give Haye and Thompson an excellent chance of stopping Povetkin. Even Mariusz Wach would give Povetkin a real run for his money, and Wladimir dominated Wach in beating him by a lopsided 12 round decision last November.
Comments are closed.