By Eric Thomas: in the latest boxing news, IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (51-3, 45 KOs) is reportedly close to signing for his title defense against undefeated IBF mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (16-0, 12 KOs), a bout that possibly will be taking place on December 3rd. If this turns out to be the case, then it’s good news for Klitschko, who is badly in need of an interesting fight after having fought six rather dull, safety-first, fights consecutively against the likes of Calvin Brock, Lamon Brewster, Chris Byrd, Ray Austin, Sultan Ibragimov and most recently against Tony Thompson.

To the best of my knowledge, the last time that Klitschko looked close to being good was against his fight against Samuel Peter in 2005. That’s a long three years ago, and he’s looked mostly mediocre since then, fighting only hard enough to get a victory, nothing more. Of course, a big part of the problem has been his poor opposition, most of which have either been too small or too weak to give him much problems. you can’t exactly apply the label of being too small in the case of the 6’5″ Austin and Thompson, but neither of them had the power or the speed to give Wladimir any problems.

But I believe that we’ve finally have found an opponent in the 28 year-old, former 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Povetkin that can give Klitschko a stern challenge and perhaps end up beating him. Povetkin has breezed through his first 16 opponents since turning professional in 2005. Most recently, he defeated former WBO/IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd by 11th round TKO, and also defeated top American heavyweight Eddie Chambers by a 12-round unanimous decision in the IBF tournament to become Wladimir’s mandatory challenger.

However, Povetkin has had to wait a little longer than he would have liked for a title shot against Wladimir, as the Ukrainian fighter instead of fighting Povetkin, opted to take on his WBO mandatory challenger, the light-hitting Thompson instead. The fight turned out to be a little tougher than Wladimir expected, with him getting cut and hit quite a bit more often than he would like. However, part of that may be because of Thompson’s huge size, southpaw stance and Wladimir’s desire to mix it up a bit more than usual to become more crowd-pleasing.

Povetkin, with his high pressure offense and excellent stamina, amounts to being the toughest opponent for Wladimir in ages. Indeed, he may even be tougher than Samuel Peter, who knocked Wladimir down several times in their 2005 bout and had him on the edge of a knockout loss. Povetkin certainly has better boxing skills than Peter, and a much better work rate. What Povetkin doesn’t have, however, is a big punch, nor the height to reach Wladimir. This could be a problem for Povetkin, because no matter how many times he hits Wladimir, he’ll to land something big if he hopes to defeat him.

Wladimir has learned how to tie up his shorter opponents when they come in close, and gives them only a few chances to land before clinching them. At a distance, Povetkin doesn’t stand a chance; Wladimir will nail him with jabs all night long, and if he can get him focusing on the jab, you can look for Wladimir to come behind it with a big right hand or a left hook. I think Povetkin can handle Wladimir’s shots without problem, as he’s shown himself to have a good chin in his fights up to this point. However, I’m not so certain that Povetkin’s skin will hold up under the stress of getting hit with a lot of hard jabs by Wladimir.

Povetkin puffed up badly against both Byrd and Chambers, and neither of which are close to being as hard a puncher as Wladimir. I think ultimately unless Povetkin can hurt Wladimir and get him out of there, we’re likely looking at a stoppage on cuts for Wladimir. I don’t see this as being an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination, because Povetkin will certainly be bringing it, and will give Wladimir the toughest fight in years.

However, in the end I think Wladimir’s size, reach and jab will prove to be too much for Povetkin to handle and we’ll see him break down under the pressure. Ideally, Povetkin shouldn’t have been rushed into a fight with Wladimir after having only 16 fights. That’s almost unheard of in boxing, and I think it’s more than a bit foolish for his handlers to be letting him do this. Sure, he’ll get a good payday, but he could be potentially messing up the rest of his career if Wladimir gives him a particularly brutal beating.