(Picture: Photo Wende) By Jason Kim: On Saturday night in Germany, WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (24-0, 16 KO’s) defends his title against Hasim Rahman (50-7-2, 41 KO’s) in a potentially interesting fight matching mediocre heavyweight champion in the 33-year-old Povetkin facing the 39-year-old past his best Rahman.

At Friday’s weigh-in, both Rahman and Povetkin looked kind of chubby with Povetkin weighing in at 229 pounds, two pounds heavier than he was for his last fight agaisnt Marco Huck last February. Povetkin really gassed out in that fight due to the excess weight he was carrying around. Povetkin was supposedly working on his weight to trim it down some so that he’d not gasp for oxygen nonstop, but I’m not sure what happened to him. Povetkin looks like he’s been training on three giant helpings of spaghetti and meatballs daily instead of trimming down for this fight.

It might not matter how much weight he’s carrying around, because Rahman has so far past his best that he’s really got nothing going for him other than his right hand power. Rahman literally has nothing more than a puncher’s chance of winning this fight, and that’s not much of a chance because Povetkin has never been knocked out before.

On the undercard, EBU heavyweight champion Kubrat Pulev (16-0, 8 KO’s) will be defending his title against the big 6’7 1/2″ Alexander Ustinov (27-0, 21 KO’s). This is a between two heavyweights with tremendous size. Ustinov, 35, weighed in at an in shape 305 lbs during today’s weigh-in. That’s about where he usually is for his fights and that’s definitely a lot of weight. Pulev, 6’4 1/2″, came in at a trimmer 249 lbs, and he looked positively small next to Ustinov.

Pulev isn’t really spectacular heavyweight. He’s really basis in that he likes to throw steady jabs and looping right hands. He’s not a big puncher, but his size gives him respectable power. It’s still too early to tell whether Pulev has a good chin or not because he’s never faced anyone that’s tested it. He took the big punching Travis Walker’s best shots as well as Alexander Dimitrenko without getting hurt or going down. However, those guys aren’t exactly the best heavyweights in the division and it’s not surprising that Pulev was able to take their best shots.

Ustinov is hard to beat because of his size, his left hook and powerful right hand. Like Vitali Klitschko, Ustinov knows how to use his height and reach to his advantage. Whether his size will help him against a good heavyweight like Pulev is another matter.