By Eric Thomas: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (60-3, 51 KO’s) is looking forward to handing unbeaten WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (26-0, 18 KO’s) his first loss this Saturday in their huge Eastern European showdown at the Olimpiyskiy, in Moscow, Russia.
Both fighters are former super heavyweight Olympic Gold medalists. Wladimir won his gold medal in the 1996 Olympics for Ukraine, and Povetkin got his in the 2004 Olympics for Russia.
Wladimir, 6’6”, is the much taller, quicker, stronger and more experienced fighter than the 6’2” Povetkin. That doesn’t mean that Wladimir will win the fight, because he’s had problems in the past in facing pressure fighters like Ross Puritty, Lamon Brewster and Samuel Peter.
Wladimir lost to Puritty and Brewster, and had a lot of problems against Peter in their first fight in 2005.
Povetkin doesn’t have the punching power of those fighters, but he’s at least as good as them at pressuring his opponents and he may not need to be a huge puncher to stop Wladimir. We’ve seen Wladimir knocked down many times in his career, and it doesn’t necessarily take a huge puncher to put him on the canvas.
Wladimir said to Moskovskie Novosti via Ria Novosti “I’ll do anything to spoil Povetkin’s record. I know it will be very tricky to do it, but I’ll be trying to get the win by a knockout.”
Povetkin will be trying to do the same thing against Wladimir, because his chances of beating the taller and longer-armed Wladimir by a decision probably aren’t very good unless he knocks him down a lot.
Wladimir is very good at boxing his shorter opponents from the outside, and Povetkin is one of his shorter opponents that he’s faced as of recent times. In Wladimir’s last three fights he’s beaten the 6’5” Francesco Pianeta, 6’8” Mariusz Wach and the 6’5” Tony Thompson.
Povetkin has beaten only one tall heavyweight in his 8-year career and that was the 6’5” Andrzej Wawrzyk in his last fight in stopping him in the 3rd round last May. However, Wawrzyk isn’t even in the same class as Pianeta, Wach of Thompson, so Povetkin didn’t get a really good warm-up in that fight for what he’s going to be dealing with this Saturday against the 6’6” Wladimir.
It’s been 9 years since Wladimir last beaten in a 5th round TKO loss to Brewster in 2004. Coincidentally that was Wladimir’s first fight with his late trainer Emanuel Steward. After that fight, Steward changed Wladimir’s fighting style to get him to use his jab a lot more, clinch more often, and to fight at a much more measured pace to conserve energy.
The changes that Steward made in Wladimir’s game have made him nearly unbeatable. He’s won his last 18 fights, and beaten guys that might even be better than Povetkin along the way.
Povetkin has slowly been brought along with his heavyweight career in being matched against Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers early in his career. Povetkin’s opposition recently have been old timers Hasim Rahman and Cedric Boswell.
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