Klitschko-Povetkin drew 12 million viewers in Germany

By Boxing News - 10/07/2013 - Comments

wladimir7245By Scott Gilfoid: Last Saturday’s fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko (61-3, 51 KO’s) and former WBA champ Alexander Povtkin (26-1, 18 KO’s) from Moscow, Russia was seen by 12 million viewers on RTL in Germany, according to Dan Rafael.

In other words, 15% of the population watched the fight. That’s an incredible number. If 15 percent of the fans in the U.S watched the Klitschko-Povetkin fight it would come out to 47 million viewers.

That just shows you how popular Wladimir Klitschko is in Germany. They love the guy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were impressed with his fight with Povetkin with all the holding he did. When you’re as popular as Wladimir is in Germany, it probably doesn’t matter how he fights, as long as he wins.

Wladimir beat Povetkin by a 12 round unanimous decision with the three judges each scoring the fight 119-104. There was no argument about the scoring of the fight, that’s for sure. Wladimir dominated the shorter, slower and weaker Povetkin. It was pretty clear early on that Povetkin came to the fight with just one plan in how to win and that was to try and lunge and Wladimir with big left hooks all night long in hopes of hurting him with one of them the way that past opponents Ross Puritty and Lamon Brewster had beaten him. Povetkin didn’t have the power that those two guys had, so even when he did land his left hook from time to time, it didn’t do anything to Wladimir. Povetkin was lacking big time in the way of power.

Wladimir got a reported $17 million for this fight, and Povtkin $6 million. That’s a lot of cash for a fight that was as boring as this one was. I’d like to think that Wladimir had more ideas in his head in how he had planned on beating Povetkin than just clinching him all night long after getting in one or two shots beforehand.

It looked like Wladimir originally started the fight with the idea of being aggressive, but as soon as he saw that Povetkin was crouching lower and looking to blast him out with every punch, Wladimir seemed to get cold feet and started clinching constantly at a pace never seen before from him in past fights.

Had Wladimir’s late trainer Emanuel Steward been working the fight, I could see him climbing all over him in the corner. Steward would have told Wladimir to go out and KO Povetkin because the loud boos alone from the Russian crowd would have been a huge motivator for him to get Wladimir in gear. Heck, even if there no booing at all, Steward would have given Wladimir firm directions to get Povetkin out of there quickly because he would have known how boxing fans watching the fight at home would have perceived. But without Steward, Wladimir clinched and shoved all night long against Povetkin, and the referee barely lifted a finger to stop him.

It’s kind of sad that for Wladimir’s biggest payday of his career, he fought arguably the poorest fight of his career.



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