Steward says Povetkin is lacking in too many areas to beat Wladimir Klitschko

By Boxing News - 06/09/2010 - Comments

Image: Steward says Povetkin is lacking in too many areas to beat Wladimir KlitschkoBy Jason Kim: Trainer Emanuel Steward is less than thrilled at IBF/WBO Wladimir Klitschko’s next opponent Alexander Povetkin, who Klitschko will be defending his titles against in September of this year. Steward, naturally, would much prefer to see Wladimir fight WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, but Steward doesn’t think that fight will ever happen because Haye seems reluctant to take the fight against Klitschko.

At East Side Boxing’s On the Ropes program, Steward said “I think that with Teddy training him, I think he will improve and he’s a good solid fighter. He has a good solid amateur apprenticeship behind him just like Wladimir, but Wladimir is just such an exceptional fighter that I just can’t see Povetkin or anyone beat Wladimir the way he’s fighting now at the top of his game. At least in Povetkin, he is a solid balanced type fighter who is technically very sound, but he just doesn’t have that extra super punch, or extra craftiness, or extra speed, or that little extra something that it would take to be a real big serious threat to Wladimir, but it would be a very interesting fight between two Gold Medal winners in the Olympics and everything.”

Steward is right. Povetkin is good in a number of areas but not exceptional in any one area and he would need to be to beat a top fighter like Wladimir. Povetkin hits hard, but isn’t a knockout puncher. He needs to throw a lot of punches generally to get his opponents out of there. At 6’2”, Povetkin is show and doesn’t have the reach of the 6’6” Klitschko.

This is probably going to be a big problem for Povetkin, because he’s going to be forced to eat a lot of punches on the outside and will have a hard time getting near enough to Wladimir to hit him with anything. And once Povetkin does get close, Wladimir will wrap him up in a clinch and prevent him from throwing. Both fighters have a common Eddie Chambers. Wladimir totally dominated Chambers in his last fight, winning round and then stopping him in the 12th.

In contrast, Povetkin had a lot of problems with Chambers for four rounds, taking a lot of punishment until Chambers ran out of gas after the 4th. Povetkin than dominated the remainder of the fight but he didn’t look all that impressive, ending up with two black eyes and looking out of breath much of the time. Povetkin doesn’t have the hand speed that Wladimir possesses and that could be a big problem for Povetkin because he won’t be able to hit Wladimir with shots that he doesn’t see and he won’t be able to throw a lot of punches like he’s accustomed to doing in his fights. Wladimir won’t be standing in front of Povetkin at close range and it’s not going to be easy for Povetkin to land his shots unless Wladimir invites him inside to exchange shots. That’s not going to happen.



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