Povetkin’s promoter not happy with Wladimir’s clinching

By Boxing News - 10/23/2013 - Comments

wlad99By Allan Fox: It’s been two and half weeks since former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (26-1, 18 KO’s) was beaten by IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (61-3, 51 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision in Moscow, Russia, but Povetkin’s promoter Kalle Sauerland still isn’t happy with all the clinching and leaning that the 37-year-old Wladimir was permitted to get away with in the fight.

Sauerland feels that the referee Luis Pabon should have stepped in and given some warnings to Wladimir to keep him from grabbing so much in the fight. Sauerland filed a protest to the World Boxing Association about the referee.

Kalle said to Gorodokboxing “After the fight with Povetkin, we have learned one thing: If the opponent is within one meter of Klitschko, Wladimir then becomes a robot with a clip instead of hands. In this case, none one has a chance…In the 3rd round, Klitschko clinched 10 times and he leaned on him 8 times. Pabon didn’t intervene.”

Pabon did take a point off from Wladmir in the 11th round after he pushed Povetkin to the canvas, but Wladimir had been shoving him earlier in the fight and had gotten away with it. Povetkin was knocked down four times in the fight, but two of them appeared to be by pushes from Wladimir. The knockdowns looked very questionable, but they were still counted.

Wladimir tends to do a lot of clinching in all of his fights and he’s been doing it for years. It seems he clinches more now than he ever has in the past, and it’s hard to understand why because most of his opponents have no chance against him due to the talent imbalance. Wladimir has beaten some really big heavyweights recently, so it’s not his size that is always the main factor in him winning. He’s fast, got a great jab and is power. That’s enough for him to win his fights. But he doesn’t need to hold his opponents because he rarely faces fighters with any power. Povetkin was one of the few opponents of Wladimir that could actually punch. Wladimir’s other recent opponents – Francesco Pianatea, Mariusz Wach, Tony Thompson and Jean Marc Mormeck weren’t big punchers.

Wladimir talked after the fight about one day giving Povetkin a rematch, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon. Wladimir has other guys that he plans on fighting, starting with Kubrat Pulev in early 2014. Povetkin is going to have to earn his way back to the mandatory sport against Wladimir if he wants to fight him again. It might be better off for Povetkin to be targeting another champion instead of waiting on a rematch with Wladimir, because he could end up waiting an awful long time for the rematch.

There’s not a lot fighter can do to avoid getting clinched by Wladimir other than telling the referee to watch for that kind of thing. They can do that but it doesn’t mean that the referee will do anything about it. He might just let Wladimir get away with the holding. In that case you have to make sure that you get your shots off first to try and catch him cold the same way Corrie Sanders did in his KO win over Wladimir.



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