By John F. McKenna (McJack): Alexander Povetkin (21-0, 15 KO’s) who won the Gold Medal in the 2004 Olympic Games will be facing his toughest test Saturday night when he takes on Ruslan Chagaev (27-1-1, 17 KO’s) in Erfurt, Germany.

The 31 year old Povetkin has fond memories of Erfurt because he received a lot of support there when he defeated defeated Chris Byrd there four years ago. Povetkin’s victory over Byrd gave him some notoriety as a professional.

In the lead up to the fight between Povetkin and Chagaev there has been little or no trash talk and Alexander feels that is the way it should be. Povetkin and Chagaev have a mutual respect for each other. Povetkin feels that Ruslan is a very good boxer and has respect for him. Povetkin points out that Chagaev handed Nikolai Valuev his first loss as a professional when many thought that the Russian giant was nearly unbeatable.

Povetkin’s outlook on boxer’s role is a breath of fresh air. He feels that fighters should be role models for young people and that the business aspect of boxing should be secondary.

Alexander began preparing for the fight with strength and conditioning training in June in Red Bank, New Jersey and then returned to his home city of Chekhov to complete his sparring and training regimen. Povetkin acknowledges that it will be a very tough fight and that he has trained to go the distance.

Povetkin previously missed out on two opportunities to fight Wladimir Klitschko. He suffered an injury before the first fight when he tumbled over a tree stump. The second opportunity was lost when the contracts could not be agreed on. In addition Povetkin lost his father. It was a low point in his life and he took some time out to heal.

Povetkin is eagerly looking forward to a possible future match with Wladimir Klitschko.
He does not feel that the postponements in the past were necessarily a bad thing and that things happen the way they are supposed to. Alexander insists that he will be well prepared for a fight with Wladimir Klitschko if it comes his way.

The boxing world will be watching on Saturday night to see if a viable challenger for the Klitschko’s comes out of the Alexander Povetkin – Rusian Chagaev match up.