It's been a very long time since we saw a proverbial "passing of the torch" in the Heavyweight division. This weekend however does give us a chance at doing just that as unbeaten Russian Alexander Povektin (26-0, 18) finally faces Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko (60-3, 51) in a long awaited battle for the title of Heavyweight Kingpin.
The 34 year old Russian, a former amateur stand out who won both the World Amateur and Olympic Gold medals, is a man on a mission. A mission that he was set when he first turned professional just over 8 years ago. To become the world Heavyweight champion.
It was, in the eyes of many a goal Povetkin looked set to do with ease when he first burst on to the professional ranks with a difficult schedule of matches that he made look easy. Unfortunately in recent years however he has gone, at least in the eyes of the media, from future king the court jester as bouts have fallen through whilst other, less interesting, bouts have managed to materialise.
When Povetkin should have been fighting the likes of Klitschko and David Haye he has been busy fighting old men like Hasim Rahman and Cedric Boswell. This has seen many fans, as well as media, turn away from Povetkin though it has looked at times like he's been fighting within himself with only Marco Huck really pushing him so far and we all know that Huck gives anyone a good fight.
With solid skills, decent power, decent speed and toughness Povetkin does look like a challenger who has the abilities to trouble anyone in the division. As well as those skills however Povetkin appears to have had a few jokers up his sleeve for this bout. Firstly it's in Moscow, the Russian capital where Povetkin will be a bigger fan favourite than Klitschko. This is a huge change to Klitschko's usual fights where he is the home fighter and the man who the fans are behind.
The second joker has been the mind games played by the Povetkin camp who have asked Dereck Chisora to observe the hand wrapping of Klitschko. After Klitschko and Chisora have had several run in's together this is a clever strategy of trying to throw the usually calm Klitschko.
The final one has been that Povetkin has actually shown up to this fight. In two prior meetings scheduled between these two Povetkin has pulled out, this time however the Russian is here and here to fight. This alone could throw Klitschko who may have been expecting another pull out from Russian.
Although Povetkin has got those jokers in his pocket it's fair to say that he will still need to get in the ring and beat the 37 year old Ukrainian, a man many have viewed as the premier Heavyweight for the better part of a decade.
Although Klitschko has made a career out of the jab and grab technique he is a highly skilled and powerful fighter himself with surprising hand speed, educated control of distance and a potent right hand. If that right lands clean most fighters will fall.
It's actually the grab part of Klitschko's tactics that lead me to thinking Povetkin will win here. Povetkin isn't a former Cruiserweight, like Haye or Moremeck, he's a strong, powerful Heavyweight who will be able to hold his own in the clinches. Povetkin also isn't a lazy fighter, he's a fighter who has shown a willingness to go to the well to retain his unbeaten record, as he did against Ruslan Chagaev and Marco Huck. I can see him showing that same heart and mental fortitude to get inside and despite being grabbed he will still unload on the inside slowly but surely out-working and breaking down Klitschko.
I know it's an outside bet but I'll be backing Povetkin by stoppage here!
Prediction-Povetkin TKO8
Showing posts with label Alexander Povetkin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alexander Povetkin. Show all posts
Friday, 4 October 2013
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Alexander Povetkin v Andrzej Wawrzyk
WBA Heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (25-0, 17) maybe a much maligned fighter though for many he is still one of the best in division. He will be hoping to show off the form that saw him rapidly climbing the rankings as he defends his title this coming Friday against relatively unknown Pole Andrzej Wawrzyk (27-0, 13).
As an amateur Povetkin was genuinely special. He was not only part of the Russian national team but was also one of the most decorated fighters in the team with 125 wins from 132 bouts including championship wins in the Olympics, the World Amateur Championships and the European Amateur Championships.
Since turning professional there was always a lot of expectation on Povetkin's shoulders and whilst he did race up the rankings thanks to victories over Eddie Chambers and Chris Byrd he has recently taken a lot of stick for avoiding bouts with Wladimir Klitschko and other meaningful Heavyweights. This abuse has been doubled up by the fact that the that the 33 year has appeared to regress in recent bouts which has again left him open to complaints from fans.
In the ring Povetkin is skilled. He has good knowledge of the ring, has decent handspeed, hurtful power, fantastic range of shots, solid defense and when he's in an offensive rhythm he's a genuine joy to watch. Sadly for all his good traits there are question marks over his heart, his chin and his stamina with all 3 looking like genuinely average and like limiting factors.
Having been a professional world champion since August 2011 Povetkin has been facing genuinely awful competition in his defenses including Hasim Rahman and Cedric Boswell as well as Cruiserweight Marco Huck (who came incredibly close to stopping Povetkin in their tear up). It appears, win or lose, that the Russian will be taking some serious criticism with this bout against Wawrzyk.
Relatively unknown to boxing fans unbeaten Pole Wawrzyk is 25 years old and has surprisingly been a professional since 2006. Although a bit of an obscure fighter he has claimed various titles including a Polish national title, a WBC "youth" title, and regional WBA and WBC belts as he's quietly climbed up the rankings.
Despite the fact he has an impressive Wawrzyk has only really faced C level fights such as Tomasz Bonin, Robert Hawkins and Denis Bahktov. It's actually the Bahktov fight though that has told us more about Wawrzyk than any other bout as we saw him hurt from counters over his lazy jab, and if Bahktov can take advantage of that then Povetkin certainly can as well.
Although popular back home in Poland, Wawrzyk has fought abroad several times, though last time he did fight away from home was way back in 2010 when he faced Harvey Jolly in the US. Whilst he may not be that afraid of fighting away from home, he is stepping up and going in to the lion's den, where he is supposed to the lamb to the slaughter.
I'd be shocked if Wawrzyk remained in the fight beyond round 9. He's going to take a real battering when Povetkin warms in to the bout and takes advantage of the Pole's short comings. Expect a good start by the challenger, though it won't take long before the champion gets going and forces a stoppage.
Prediction-Povetkin TKO7
As an amateur Povetkin was genuinely special. He was not only part of the Russian national team but was also one of the most decorated fighters in the team with 125 wins from 132 bouts including championship wins in the Olympics, the World Amateur Championships and the European Amateur Championships.
Since turning professional there was always a lot of expectation on Povetkin's shoulders and whilst he did race up the rankings thanks to victories over Eddie Chambers and Chris Byrd he has recently taken a lot of stick for avoiding bouts with Wladimir Klitschko and other meaningful Heavyweights. This abuse has been doubled up by the fact that the that the 33 year has appeared to regress in recent bouts which has again left him open to complaints from fans.
In the ring Povetkin is skilled. He has good knowledge of the ring, has decent handspeed, hurtful power, fantastic range of shots, solid defense and when he's in an offensive rhythm he's a genuine joy to watch. Sadly for all his good traits there are question marks over his heart, his chin and his stamina with all 3 looking like genuinely average and like limiting factors.
Having been a professional world champion since August 2011 Povetkin has been facing genuinely awful competition in his defenses including Hasim Rahman and Cedric Boswell as well as Cruiserweight Marco Huck (who came incredibly close to stopping Povetkin in their tear up). It appears, win or lose, that the Russian will be taking some serious criticism with this bout against Wawrzyk.
Relatively unknown to boxing fans unbeaten Pole Wawrzyk is 25 years old and has surprisingly been a professional since 2006. Although a bit of an obscure fighter he has claimed various titles including a Polish national title, a WBC "youth" title, and regional WBA and WBC belts as he's quietly climbed up the rankings.
Despite the fact he has an impressive Wawrzyk has only really faced C level fights such as Tomasz Bonin, Robert Hawkins and Denis Bahktov. It's actually the Bahktov fight though that has told us more about Wawrzyk than any other bout as we saw him hurt from counters over his lazy jab, and if Bahktov can take advantage of that then Povetkin certainly can as well.
Although popular back home in Poland, Wawrzyk has fought abroad several times, though last time he did fight away from home was way back in 2010 when he faced Harvey Jolly in the US. Whilst he may not be that afraid of fighting away from home, he is stepping up and going in to the lion's den, where he is supposed to the lamb to the slaughter.
I'd be shocked if Wawrzyk remained in the fight beyond round 9. He's going to take a real battering when Povetkin warms in to the bout and takes advantage of the Pole's short comings. Expect a good start by the challenger, though it won't take long before the champion gets going and forces a stoppage.
Prediction-Povetkin TKO7
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Alexander Povetkin v Hasim Rahman
As boxing fans we are all too aware of mismatches which are made for one reason or another, though rarely do we consider "mandatory title fights" to be mismatches. Sadly however the upcoming WBA Heavyweight title bout between unbeaten champion Alexander Povetkin (24-0, 16) and mandatory challenger Hasim Raham (50-7-2-1, 41) appears to be nothing other than a mandatory mismatch of the highest order.
Despite once being the "the" Heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman is nothing more than a washed up has been (Hasbeen Rahman?) and is a fighter who is not only nearing 40 but is with out a noteworthy win in over 7 years.
Known as "The Rock" Rahman has been a professional since 1994 and started his career excellently with 29 straight wins before being controversially stopped by David Tua in 1998. A year later, Rahman's record had fallen to 31-2 having suffered a second stoppage loss, this time to Oleg Maskaev who knocked Rahman out of the ring.
Rahman fought back hard following his 2 losses and scored wins over the tough Marion Wilson, the late Corrie Sanders and Frankie Swindell. Following those 3 victories he signed to fight Lennox Lewis in a bout for the WBC and IBF Heavyweight titles and scored the biggest upset of 2001 by knocking Lewis out with a monster right hand. Sadly however Rahman's title reign lasted just 7 months before Lewis avenged his loss and knocked out Rahamn.
Following the loss to Lewis Rahman would struggle to restart his career and failed to win any of his next 3 bouts, losing to both Evander Holyfield (TD8) and John Ruiz (UD12) whilst drawing to David Tua in a rematch. Following these set backs at world level Rahman dropped back a level and scored a number of easier victories over a combination of journeymen and fringe level fighters before being lined up to fight Vitali Klitschko. Sadly injuries to Klitschko forced their bout to delayed numerous times, before finally forcing Klitschko to retire. Prior to Klitschko's retirement however Rahman had claimed the WBC "interim" title by defeating Monte Barrett (UD12).
After Vitali Klitschko retired Rahman was promoted to full WBC champion making just 1 successful title defense, a draw with James Toney before being knocked out of the ring for a second time by Oleg Maskaev who claimed the WBC title as a result. Since this loss Rahman has been toiling in relative obscurity barring a loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2008, where Rahman incidentally filled in after Povetkin pulled out of the bout.
At his best Rahman was a tough and hard hitting fighter, perhaps not genuinely "world class" (despite his victory over Lennox Lewis) but certainly a credible fighter for a world title bout. His best however was some 10 years ago however and since then he has really struggled to make any sort of actual impact. It's fair to say that despite losing only one of his last 11 bouts he has been beating very low level opponents and fighters that really don't register on the world scene.
Whilst Rahman has been wasting his time with meaningless bouts in recent years Povetkin has been a busy man who advanced his professional career quickly before starting to disappoint in recent bouts.
Prior to turning professional Povetkin was an outstanding amateur and won Gold medals at the Olympics (2004), World Amateur Championships (2003) and European Championships (2004, 2002) showing himself to be a genuinely top level amateur. Due to his amateur credentials a lot was expected from him when he turned professional in 2005.
Povetkin's rise through the rankings early in his career was genuinely exceptional as he scored notable wins from the off and with in his first 10 bouts he had already beaten the likes of Friday Ahunanya, Livin Castillo and Imamu Mayfield. His rise continued over his next 5 fights and he quickly became the IBF #1 contender thanks to victories over Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers. At this point he was the hottest thing in Heavyweight.
Sadly since becoming the #1 IBF Povetkin's career has been awfully disappointing, notably by his refusal to actually fight the IBF's champion Wladimir Klitschko which has left many boxing fans thinking he is somewhat a chicken. Instead of facing Klitschko as far back as 2008 Povetkin instead chose to face some very poor opponents such as Taurus Sykes, Javier Mora and Nicolai Firtha.
In 2011 Povetkin finally fulfilled some of his early career promise as he claimed the WBA Heavyweight title by defeating former champion Ruslan Chagaev, though most knew that the WBA title was really a paper title as Wladimir Klitschko had won the WBA "Super" title at Heavyweight. Despite calls, once again, for Povetkin to face Klitschko, the Russian instead choose to face aging American Cedric Boswell before defending against Cruiserweight Marco Huck (in what was an enthralling bout).
Povetkin is a durable fighter and he has solid skills as well as a solid engine but sadly he doesn't seem to do anything fantastically. His skills from the amateurs don't seem to be that sharp, he's not particularly fast and he's not a fighter who has shown any true 1-punch KO power. If anything his strength was his desire early in his career but even that seems to have dropped off in recent bouts.
Despite being a talented fighter Povetkin has disappointed us in his choice of opposition in recent years and whilst we're willing to admit that he is fighting a mandatory opponent in Hasim Rahman this is another poor match for Povetkin. I'd genuinely be shocked if Povetkin struggled here and would happily put money on his scoring a stoppage over Rahman, who will hopefully bow out of the sport following this bout.
Prediction-Povetkin TKO7
Despite once being the "the" Heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman is nothing more than a washed up has been (Hasbeen Rahman?) and is a fighter who is not only nearing 40 but is with out a noteworthy win in over 7 years.
Known as "The Rock" Rahman has been a professional since 1994 and started his career excellently with 29 straight wins before being controversially stopped by David Tua in 1998. A year later, Rahman's record had fallen to 31-2 having suffered a second stoppage loss, this time to Oleg Maskaev who knocked Rahman out of the ring.
Rahman fought back hard following his 2 losses and scored wins over the tough Marion Wilson, the late Corrie Sanders and Frankie Swindell. Following those 3 victories he signed to fight Lennox Lewis in a bout for the WBC and IBF Heavyweight titles and scored the biggest upset of 2001 by knocking Lewis out with a monster right hand. Sadly however Rahman's title reign lasted just 7 months before Lewis avenged his loss and knocked out Rahamn.
Following the loss to Lewis Rahman would struggle to restart his career and failed to win any of his next 3 bouts, losing to both Evander Holyfield (TD8) and John Ruiz (UD12) whilst drawing to David Tua in a rematch. Following these set backs at world level Rahman dropped back a level and scored a number of easier victories over a combination of journeymen and fringe level fighters before being lined up to fight Vitali Klitschko. Sadly injuries to Klitschko forced their bout to delayed numerous times, before finally forcing Klitschko to retire. Prior to Klitschko's retirement however Rahman had claimed the WBC "interim" title by defeating Monte Barrett (UD12).
After Vitali Klitschko retired Rahman was promoted to full WBC champion making just 1 successful title defense, a draw with James Toney before being knocked out of the ring for a second time by Oleg Maskaev who claimed the WBC title as a result. Since this loss Rahman has been toiling in relative obscurity barring a loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2008, where Rahman incidentally filled in after Povetkin pulled out of the bout.
At his best Rahman was a tough and hard hitting fighter, perhaps not genuinely "world class" (despite his victory over Lennox Lewis) but certainly a credible fighter for a world title bout. His best however was some 10 years ago however and since then he has really struggled to make any sort of actual impact. It's fair to say that despite losing only one of his last 11 bouts he has been beating very low level opponents and fighters that really don't register on the world scene.
Whilst Rahman has been wasting his time with meaningless bouts in recent years Povetkin has been a busy man who advanced his professional career quickly before starting to disappoint in recent bouts.
Prior to turning professional Povetkin was an outstanding amateur and won Gold medals at the Olympics (2004), World Amateur Championships (2003) and European Championships (2004, 2002) showing himself to be a genuinely top level amateur. Due to his amateur credentials a lot was expected from him when he turned professional in 2005.
Povetkin's rise through the rankings early in his career was genuinely exceptional as he scored notable wins from the off and with in his first 10 bouts he had already beaten the likes of Friday Ahunanya, Livin Castillo and Imamu Mayfield. His rise continued over his next 5 fights and he quickly became the IBF #1 contender thanks to victories over Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers. At this point he was the hottest thing in Heavyweight.
Sadly since becoming the #1 IBF Povetkin's career has been awfully disappointing, notably by his refusal to actually fight the IBF's champion Wladimir Klitschko which has left many boxing fans thinking he is somewhat a chicken. Instead of facing Klitschko as far back as 2008 Povetkin instead chose to face some very poor opponents such as Taurus Sykes, Javier Mora and Nicolai Firtha.
In 2011 Povetkin finally fulfilled some of his early career promise as he claimed the WBA Heavyweight title by defeating former champion Ruslan Chagaev, though most knew that the WBA title was really a paper title as Wladimir Klitschko had won the WBA "Super" title at Heavyweight. Despite calls, once again, for Povetkin to face Klitschko, the Russian instead choose to face aging American Cedric Boswell before defending against Cruiserweight Marco Huck (in what was an enthralling bout).
Povetkin is a durable fighter and he has solid skills as well as a solid engine but sadly he doesn't seem to do anything fantastically. His skills from the amateurs don't seem to be that sharp, he's not particularly fast and he's not a fighter who has shown any true 1-punch KO power. If anything his strength was his desire early in his career but even that seems to have dropped off in recent bouts.
Despite being a talented fighter Povetkin has disappointed us in his choice of opposition in recent years and whilst we're willing to admit that he is fighting a mandatory opponent in Hasim Rahman this is another poor match for Povetkin. I'd genuinely be shocked if Povetkin struggled here and would happily put money on his scoring a stoppage over Rahman, who will hopefully bow out of the sport following this bout.
Prediction-Povetkin TKO7
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