Alexander Povetkin – Bermane Stiverne to take place in Russia

By Boxing News - 10/08/2016 - Comments

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By Patrick McHugh: Former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin’s promoters at World Of Boxing won the purse bid last Friday to stage the Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) vs. Bermane Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs) fight for the interim WBC heavyweight title. The fight will be taking place in Russia, where the 37-year-old Povetkin lives. The winning bid was 3.165 million. It’ll be a 50-50 split of the money for Stiverne and Povetkin.

The winner of the Povetkin-Stiverne fight will face World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder as soon as he’s able to return to the ring. Wilder injured his right hand and bicep in his last title defense against Chris Arreola.

It’s good news that the Povetkin-Stiverne fight can now go ahead. There still isn’t a date for the fight and an exact venue, but that information should be revealed at a later date. The fight is now a reality, and it should be an interesting fight once it takes place. Povetkin will need to use his boxing skills to beat the bigger, stronger and taller Stiverne. If Povetkin tries to stand in the pocket and slug with Stiverne, it could end badly for him.

Stiverne last fought nearly a year ago in beating Derric Rossey by a 10 round decision. Stiverne had previously been out of the ring for 10 months after losing his WBC title to Wilder in January of last year. The inactivity seemed to take something from Stiverne’s game, as he didn’t look impressive in beating Rossy. Stiverne had to get off the canvas in the 1st round after getting dropped by Rossy.

Povetkin is the same age as Stiverne at 37, and he’s not fought in 11 months as well since beating Mariusz Wach by a 12th round TKO last November.

Povetkin vs. Stiverne is a toss-up fight. Povetkin will have an advantage with the fight taking place in Russia, but he’s still going to need to find a way to handle the powerful jab, left hook and right hands thrown from Stiverne. Povetkin is a small heavyweight, and he’ll be giving away two inches in reach and 25 pounds in weight to the 250+ pound Stiverne. That could prove to be difficult for Povetkin, as he’s mostly beaten lesser heavyweights during his career.

Povetkin’s best wins have come against Ruslan Chagaev, Carlos Takam, Mike Perez, Hasim Rahman, Marco Huck, Eddie Chambers and Chris Byrd. Takam is probably the best of the bunch, and that was a really tough fight for Povetkin two years ago. He’s not as young as he was back then, and it’s debatable whether he’ll be able to handle the power of Stiverne.

It’ll be much worse for Povetkin if he can get past Stiverne to fight the 6’7” Wilder, because he’s going to have to find a way to get to the chin of the much taller fighter. We just saw Wilder toy with the 6’3” Chris Arreola in defeating him by an 8th round stoppage last July.

Wilder did that with just his left arm working for him, because he had hurt his right arm earlier in the fight. Povetkin’s lack of reach and size could prevent him from landing his shots against the taller Wilder, who now uses his long jab to dominate his shorter opponents.