By Jason Kim: International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (51-3, 45 KOs) will be defending his title on December 13th, in Mannheim, Germany, against Alexander Povetkin (16-0, 12 KOs). The bout pits two former Olympic Gold Medalists, Klitschko the 1996 winner and Povetkin the 2004 Gold medal winner. In Povetkin’s case, he’s been moved up rapidly into this title match by his handlers after winning the IBF mandatory tournament with wins over Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers.

At 29, Povetkin may or may not be the future of the heavyweight division, depending on how well he does against Klitschko on December 13th and how long he can compete with his high energy style of fighting. He’s not blessed with a lot of power or size compared to many other heavyweights, but he more than makes up for it with his high volume punch output. Listed at 6’2″, Povetkin is probably closer to 6’0″, possibly 6’1″ at the most, which will be a problem for him against the 6’6″ Klitschko. Povetkin will be forced to eat a lot of leather in order to get close enough to land his short combinations. The problem with that, however, is that Wladimir likes to tie up his opponents when they get in close range, something he likes to do again and again.

This boils down to Povetkin taking a lot of leather on the outside while trying to get in close, and once he succeeds in getting near to Wladimir, he will probably find himself in a clinch, unable to throw any meaningful punches. And while Wladimir does have a weak chin, it usually takes a big puncher for him to be taken out. Povetkin will have to count on trying to land the perfect punch in order to take out Wladimir. At would stand to reason that Povetkin has little chance of out-boxing Wladimir, who is quite good at piling up points on the outside with his long jab.

Wladimir is hard to beat by decision, and, in fact, it’s never happened before. This would seemed to suggest that Povetkin’s only real chance of winning is if he can somehow wear Wladimir down by making him expend a lot of energy defending his attacks, like Ross Puritty did in his 11th round TKO victory over Klitschko in 1998, and then try to take him out with a hard surge in the 10th or 11th rounds.

If Povetkin makes the mistake of trying for a knockout too early, he may find himself getting knocked out. Wladimir punches much harder than him and has one of the best right hands, left hooks in the heavyweight division, when he chooses to use them. A lot of the time, Wladimir fights fearful, afraid to throw his bombs, but when attacked hard, he unloads the artillery, throwing bomb after bomb until his opponent is either beaten back or beaten down.

Povetkin probably couldn’t survive a counter attack like this from Wladimir, so it would be wise for him to use stealth until he’s absolutely certain that Wladimir has exhausted himself and then go all out and unload his ammunition on him to try and take him out.