By Jim Dower: WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (25-0, 17 KO’s) easily took care of 39-year-old Hasim Rahman (50-8-2, 41 KO’s) in the 2nd round TKO tonight at the Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany. Povetkin hurt Rahman badly with a left hook to the head in the 2nd and then flurried on him until referee Gustavo Padilla stepped in and stopped the fight at 1:46 of the round.

This fight really made the World Boxing Association look bad for their decision to rank Rahman as #1 WBA contender for Povetkin off of a handful of wins over poor 3rd tier heavyweights. Rahman did not belong in the same ring with Povetkin and we saw that clearly in the 1st round when Povetkin staggered Rahman with a right hand to the head. It looked like Povetkin could have finished Rahman off right then and there, but he held back and fought cautiously for the remainder of the round. I think Povetkin could have easily have stopped Rahman in the 1st if he applied himself because Rahman was there for the taking and looked unsteady.

After Povetkin hurt Rahman in the 2nd, Rahman backed to the ropes and tried to cover up but a lot of Povetkin’s shots still leaked through his guard anyways. Finally, Rahman needed to use his left arm to hold onto the ropes to keep from going down. From this position he fought one last stand against Povetkin until the referee finally stepped in and ended the slaughter.

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EBU heavyweight champion Kubrat Pulev (17-0 9 KO’s) locked himself into a mandatory title shot against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko by stopping Alexander Ustinov (27-1, 21 KO’s) in the 11th round tonight in their IBF heavyweight eliminator bout.

The 6’4 1/2″ Pulev knocked an exhausted and bloody Ustinov down with a left hook to the head in the 11th. The fight was then halted by referee Phil Edwards at 1:21 of the round with the 305 lb Ustimov still down on one knee on the canvas.

The fight was supposed to have been a highly competitive one, but Ustinov, 6’7 1/2″, had no answer for Pulev’s steady jab. Pulev, an amateur star from Bulgaria, fought pretty much like it was amateur fight by focusing mostly on landing his points scoring jabs. That’s about all Pulev needed to do against the slow and heavy Ustinov. Pulev effectively beat Ustinov with one hand, although he did land an occasional right hand but his power wasn’t all that impressive.

Ustinov hurt Pulev in the 7th after landing two hard right hands to the head. Before that, Ustinov had been badly dominated. However, Ustinov failed to follow up and the moment was lost.

Ustinov bled from a cut over his left eye. The cut worsened as the fight wore on, but it wasn’t a real factor in the fight for Ustinov losing. He lost mostly because of jabs he was eating and the fast pace of the fight. Ustinov wasn’t used to fighting as fast as Pulev was forcing him to, and he looked like he wasn’t in continue for the fight.

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Undefeated WBA Inter-Continental light middleweight champion Jack Culcay (13-0, 9 KO’s) stopped Mark Thompson (24-2, 14 KO’s) by a 5th round TKO in a back and forth war. The ending of the fight was highly controversial, however, as referee Leszek Jankowiak appeared to halt the fight prematurely at 2:48 of the round while Thompson was calmly covering up on the ropes while Culcay was flurrying on him – and missing with many of his shots.

Other boxing results on the card:

Alexander Povetkin TKO 2 Hasim Rahman
Jack Culcay TKO 5 Mark Thompson
David Graf UD 6 Martyn Grainger
Enrico Koelling UD 6 Pablo Sosa
Reda Zam Zam UD 6 Ciro Ciano