By Erik Schmidt: In a stay busy fight, International Boxing Federation number #1 mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (17-0, 12 KOs) defeated American Jason Estrada (15-2, 3 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision tonight in Dusseldorf, Germany. Povetkin, 29, the 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist for Russia, was making his first appearance since beating Taurus Sykes in 2008, and didn’t look quite as good as he usually does.
Povetkin started off slow, taking fast combinations from the slightly quicker Estrada in the early going. However, once Povetkin got warmed up around the 6th round, he never looked back as he easily outworked the pudgy Estrada. Like in his fight with Eddie Chambers in 2008, Povetkin wore Estrada down with a high work rate and a lot of steady pressure.
Estrada, decorated amateur for the U.S, looked exhausted in the last four rounds of the 10-round bout, breathing hard, punching much less often and throwing weak arm shots. In fairness to Estrada, he never had any power to speak of from the beginning, but even the little power he did have dramatically decreased starting in the 6th round.
However, it was clear well before that point in the fight that Estrada wasn’t anywhere near the same class as Povetkin, and was serving mostly as a punching bag for the Russian heavyweight.
In the 9th and 10th rounds, Povetkin battered a nearly helpless Estrada with power shots, trying hard to take the American out. In the 10th, Estrada was punched around the ring, taking solid head shots for most of the round as Povetkin attempted to batter him into submission. Estrada took the shots, stayed upright somehow, but offered little in defense of himself.
Povetkin, looking close to 20 pounds overweight, attacked Estrada in the 1st round, throwing right hands and a few combinations. The added weight and the time off seemed to have slowed Povetkin way down, making his punches much slower than they were before. He looked mechanical because of the added weight, and appeared like a fighter much older than his 29-years. Estrada, not exactly thin ether, focused on throwing jabs in the round.
In the 2nd round, Povetkin and Estrada began to clinch after almost every punch thrown. It looked awful to watch, and unfortunately they would continue to fight in this manner for the remainder of the bout, each taking frequent breaks from punching by resting in their clinches.
Estrada mostly jabbed in the round, only throwing a few meaningful punches during the entire round. For his part, Povetkin missed a great deal of punches, and had to be content with only being able to land jabs.
In the 3rd and 4th rounds, Povetkin stepped up the pace of his offense, throwing many more combinations but continuing to miss an awful lot of the time. Povetkin seemed to have the best luck when throwing short punches, landing right uppercuts and hooks to the body.
Around this time, Povetkin began to start to look very tired, breathing heavily with his mouth open while fighting. In between rounds, he labored for breath, while his trainer constantly fanned him with a wet towel trying to give him pep talks in Russian.
Povetkin landed one good right hand in the 5th, bloodying Estrada’s nose. Aside from that, it was all jabs, missed punches and a ton of clinching going on. I thought the Vitali Klitschko vs. Juan Carlos Gomez bout was painful to watch, but this fight was 10 times worse, because Povetkin had little of Vitali’s skills or size.
The clinching and heavy breathing continued in the 6th round, Povetkin missing often and throwing mostly right hands. The clinching would come directly after a punch attempt by Povetkin, as he would need time to rest. Estrada was doing zero, just jabbing and making a lot of racket with his grunting while throwing them.
Estrada had a halfway decent round in the 7th, landing some nice left hands and a few rights.
It was sad, though, because even this small amount of punches had the effect of draining Estrada like a battery, leaving him looking exhausted and out of breath by the time the round ended. Povetkin looked little better, taking huge gulps of air every so often and looking like he was about to topple over at any minute.
Povetkin turned up his offense a notch in the 8th round, plastering a tired Estrada with hard combinations through the entire round. The right was now a complete route with Povetkin pummeling the heavy Estrada with short combinations at close range, and finding him easy to hit.
The 9th round was another resting round for Povetkin, who looked exhausted from his expenditure of energy in the previous round. As such, Povetkin did a ton of clinching in between every punch thrown and had the effect of slowing the round to a virtual crawl. He got not arguments from Estrada, because he looked like he needed a break in the worst way.
In the 10th, Povetkin stunned Estrada with a big left hand to the head, the punch snapping Estrada’s head to the side violently. Povetkin then went for broke in the last 30 seconds trying for a knockout. It didn’t happen but Povetkin succeeded in hitting Estrada with a ton shots before the bout finally ended.
Overall, a bad performance from Povetkin, who looked like he wasn’t in shape, and needed at least two to three more months to strip off all the extra fat on his short frame. If he comes in this kind of shape against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, I see Povetkin getting knocked out quickly.
In other action on the card, fringe heavyweight contender Francesco Pianeta fought to a 10-round draw with Polish heavyweight Alberto Sosnowski. The final judges’ scores were 113-115, 116-111 and 114-114.
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