By Jason Kim: Former WBC heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO’s) is hoping he can capture another world title on September 29th against WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (24-0, 16 KO’s) at the Sporthalle, Alterdorf, in Hamburg, Germany. Rahman, 39, has had a dry spell for a while since losing his World Boxing Council heavyweight title to Oleg Maskaev by a 12th round TKO six years ago in 2006.

Rahman got another shot two years later against IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in 2008, but was overmatched by the tall 6’6″ Ukrainian’s size, speed and power and ended up folding in the 7th round of a one-sided fight. To Rahman’s credit, he hasn’t lost a fight since then beating his last five opponents all by knockouts.

Rahman has a tough fight on his hands in 33-year-old Povetkin because he’s the type of fighter that has given Rahman problems in the past due to Povetkin’s high work rate and good chin. Rahman has the better power compared to Povetkin, but he doesn’t have the work rate or the same stamina that Povetkin has going for him. This means that Rahman has very little chance of winning a decision against Povetkin because he won’t be able to match his work rate.

Another thing that Rahman has going against him in this fight is that Povetkin is a German-based fighter, meaning that it could be extremely hard for Rahman to get a decision victory in this fight unless he’s able to drop Povetkin two or three times in separate rounds. What makes it hard to do that is that Povetkin has never been dropped before during his pro career and he’s obviously never been knocked out before because he’s still unbeaten.

Rahman can’t afford to hold anything back when he fights Povetkin on September 29th. Rahman has to go after Povetkin hard early and look to get him out before Rahman runs out of gas.