By Jim Dower: After many years of toiling away in obscurity in the heavyweight division Alexander Povetkin (21-0, 17 KO’s) will finally get a shot at the title against former WBA heavyweight champion Ruslan Chagaev (27-1-1, 17 KO’s) in a fight for the vacant World Boxing Association belt in Efurt, Germany.

This is the belt that was formerly held by David Haye, but who lost it to IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko on July 2nd.

Klitschko is now the WBA Super World heavyweight champ, as well as still the IBF/WBO champ. The WBA just freed up the WBA regular title so that they could make a little extra cash with the sanctioning fees.

It’s terrible for boxing fans because it just creates huge mess with multiple champions left and right, and causing the casual fans to be totally confused about who the top guy is.

Whatever the case, Povetkin will be fighting Chagaev, the “White Tyson,” for the WBA strap and the winner can choose to do whatever with the belt. My guess is they’ll milk the title against the mostly average opposition that the WBA has ranked.

Ideally, David Haye would come back and try and reclaim his belt by knocking off the winner of the Chagaev vs. Povetkin fight. However, Haye appears to be in the shutdown mode of his career and has pretty much made it clear that he only wants a big money rematch with Wladimir and then he’ll retire.

It’s kind of a lazy way of going about it, because isn’t going to fight him and Haye needs to earn the rematch. He won’t bother though.

Chagaev has the style to give Povetkin problems with his southpaw stance and his powerful combinations. Povetkin, 6’2”, likes to pressure his opponents but doesn’t have a great deal of power.

He seems to wear down in the later rounds of his fights and is often huffing and puffing in between rounds. Chagaev could wear him out if he’s able to use movement and fast combinations.

Povetkin hasn’t taken on a quality fighter in over three years, so it’s hard to know how he’ll react in fighting a good fighter like Chagaev.