By Charles Brun: Former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin has been released from a hospital after testing positive for COVID 19, and he’ll be back in the gym in three weeks to prepare for his rematch with Dillian Whyte on January 30th.

Povetkin won’t have much time to prepare for the Whyte rematch if his training camp starts in December. It may not take Povetkin much time to get ready for Whyte, as he already knows how to beat him.

Earlier this year, Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KOs) shocked the boxing world with a stunning fifth-round knockout of heavy favorite Whyte (27-2, 18 KOs) on August 22 in Brentwood, Essex.

Rather than walk away from the loss, Whyte has stubbornly decided to get back in there with Povetkin, 41, for a second try. The carrot that Whyte is trying to snatch from the 2004 Olympic gold medalist Povetkin is the WBC mandatory position that he previously held.

If Whyte can grab that spot, his promoter Eddie Hearn will likely try, and press the World Boxing Council to force WBC champion Tyson Fury to defend against Dillian in the first quarter of 2021. The chances of that happening are slim, but you never know.

With the WBC creating new belts and the ‘bridgerweight’ 224-lbs division, it’s quite possible that they could grant Hearn his wish to order Fury to face Whyte. But before anything like that can happen, Whyte will need to beat Povetkin, and that’s going to be difficult.

What we saw from the previous Whyte-Povetkin fight, Dillian is wide open for uppercuts. Joseph Parker, Oscar Rivas, and Anthony Joshua put Whyte down with uppercuts. Povetkin obviously studied those fights and capitalized on Whyte’s vulnerability to that bunch.

Since Whyte hasn’t learned from his past fights, Povetkin can count on being able to land his uppercuts with impunity on January 30th. The reason why Whyte can’t protect himself from the uppercuts is his entire game is centered on him leaning forward so that he can throw his hooks and uppercuts, which are his bread & butter punches.

If you take those weapons from Whyte, he’s just an average heavyweight, no better than Dereck Chisora, and some of the other bottom-level fighters in the top 15.

It would be better for Whyte to take two or three tune-up fights to try and fix the flaws in his game before taking on Povetkin again. All the holes in Whyte’s game that Povetkin took advantage of last August will still be present when he faces him on January 30th.

Povetkin was discharged from the hospital pic.twitter.com/4UNbt4yDW8

— World of Boxing Promotions Company (@worldofbox) November 10, 2020

Hearn has already said that Whyte’s career could be on the line when he faces Povetkin in the rematch. Another loss for Whyte will result in him losing any chance of ever getting a title shot against champions, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

Also, it’s possible that Whyte’s future fights won’t be shown on pay-per-view on Sky Box Office if he loses to Povetkin again.