(Photo: Wende) By Sean McDaniel: Earlier today it was learned that WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin’s title defense against 39-year-old Hasim Rahman was pulled out from the undercard of the July 14th mega fight between David Haye and Dereck Chisora at Upton Park in London, UK.

Instead of the Rahman-Povetkin fight taking place on the Chisora-Haye card, it will take place on the same date but at the Sporthalle Hamburg, in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

The excuse for Povetkin’s management pulling out of the Haye vs. Chisora was because of “Organizational aspects…The English time schedule was too tight,” says Sauerland Event managing director Chris Meyer.

Whatever the case, the Haye-Chisora card won’t miss much by losing the Povetkin vs. Rahman fight, because no one was excited about seeing that fight anyway. Rahman is an aging ex-WBC heavyweight champion, who hasn’t do much in many years, and Povetkin is considered a paper champion by many boxing fans. Neither fighter has a large fan base to speak. As such, the fight would have been an oddity on the undercard of the Chisora vs. Haye card.

Boxing fans are coming to see the Haye-Chisora fight because of the main event, not for the Povetkin bout against a 40ish Rahman. And now that the Rahman-Povetkin fight is off the card, I’m sure there won’t be any tears from fans who were hoping to see that fight.

Haye plans on punishing Chisora and knocking him out in order to make a statement to his British fans and to the world. Haye wants to take on WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko after the Chisora bout, and the best way to accomplish that goal is to make easy work of Chisora, who gave the 40-year-old Vitali all kinds of problems last February in a losing effort. Chisora lost a 12 round decision but he wore Vitali down with pressure despite losing.