By Allan Fox: According to Dan Rafael, a Russian promoter Vladimir Hyunov has made a huge, huge $23 million purse bid for a fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin for an August 31st fight in Moscow, Russia.
Hyunov’s $23 million bid topped Wladimir’s K2 Promotions bid of $7.1 million and Povetkin’s promoters Sauerland Event’s $6.01 million. Wladimir will receive 75% of the money, which comes out to more than $17 million compared to the nearly $6 million for Povetkin.
Wladimir’s manager Bernd Boente told ESPN: “We only have to make sure that the money goes into escrow and that it’s real.”
Boente says that this is Wladimir’s biggest payday of his career “by far” if the purse bid is real and not a fake one.
Wladimir will still have to get by his next opponent Francesco Pianeta (28-0-1, 15 KO’s) early next month on May 4th at the SAP-Arena, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. If Wladimir loses that fight then he can forget all about getting that big $17 million purse because he’ll no longer have the WBA title in his possession. It’ll be Pianeta with the strap.
The Russian promoter Hyunov will have to come up with 10 percent of the $23 million [$2.3 million] in the near future as a deposit, according to Dan Rafael.
Wladimir vs. Povetkin would likely bring a lot of fans to Moscow. It might not be a big deal for boxing fans outside of Germany, Ukraine and Russia but in those three countries, this will be a big fight. Both Wladimir and Povetkin are former Olympic gold medalists, although Povetkin has faced much softer opposition compared to the 6’6” Wladimir.
HBO could end up televising the fight in the United States. It might not bring in the huge numbers that are seen with Manny Pacquiao fights, but there could be some interest in the fight by hardcore boxing fans.
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