Povetkin: Real Deal or Over-hyped nobody?

A few weeks ago we saw Alexander Povetkin get a generous decision win over Marco Huck. This was his first fight without Teddy Atlas, and he didn't look good. He appeared to be exhausted after just five rounds, for a champion that is not good enough. The issues around Atlas where beyond stupid, Atlas and Povetkin had apparently made a gentleman's agreement that when ESPN Fright Night Fights was in season Povetkin would move to the states to train, and during the off season Atlas would come to Russia.

Some will question whether this is because he actually fought a guy who came to fight, or because he overlooked him. I can't say for certain which is the correct answer but I believe it is a little bit of both. Huck came to fight, and was always a big Cruiserweight, but he is crude in what he does, he loads up big hooks and looks very wild when throwing them. Povetkin on the other hand, appeared before Saturday to posses good hand speed and decent power as shown against an ageing Boswell in his previous fight. The big question is how far did Atlas scale back his opponents? Atlas, like any other trainer wanted his fighter too look good, and sometimes to do that you have to fight lesser opponents. The issues I then have with this is the calls for a fight with either Klitschko, Povetkin could fight for an other 20 or 30 years still wouldn't be ready for those fights. He has too many flaws and doesn't have a good enough engine to keep the pressure on for 12 rounds non stop like Chisora did against Vitali.

Upon looking at the record of Povetkin it makes poor reading. In 24 fights he has only two names on his record, an aging and overweight Eddie Chambers, and Ruslan Chagaev for the vacant WBA World Title. While I understand that there aren't many elite level fighters in the Heavyweight division, there are people like Chris Arreola, he only has two defeats on his record one to Vitali Klitschko and one to Tomasz Adamek, and I'd back both of those guys to beat Povetkin. Below is the WBA Top 10;

1. Hasim Rahman
2. Robert Helenius
3. Aleander Ustinov
4. Denis Boytov
5. Luis Oritz
6. David Haye
7. Alexander Dimitrenko
8. Ruslan Chagaev
9. Chris Arreola
10. Jean Marc Mormeck

He must fight one of these guys next, and it has to be someone who is close to their prime. Unless forced to by the WBA he should steer clear of Rahman, he is too old and past his best and would only serve to put another name on his record. But as I said earlier someone like Arreola or Dimitrenko, who strangely seems to win the EBU title and then vacates it so he can win it again, would both be a good challenge for him and certainly a step up in class. Huck was a step in the right direction and I believe he is now concerned about a few aspects of his game, stamina being the main one, and it is because of this I doubt we'll see him with a real challenge anytime soon.

alma wrote:Is the heavyweight division finally worse than the cruiserweight division?

d260005p wrote:Plus, where is Holyfield?

Union Cane wrote:Even Marciano would have half a chance against some of them, eh Az?

oxring wrote:To all mods and admins and people who have control over such things. Please, pretty please - could you procure a facepalm smiley - that conveys the depth of feeling which occurs when banging one's head against a brick wall. Just so I have a slightly more pithy response to Az's comments about the Rock.

On another note - someone above described Chambers as "overweight and ageing" - that's not fair. Chambers was a bit tubs when he fought Povetkin - but he most certainly wasn't ageing - in fact, he was arguably in his prime. Povetkin won - but not until after being comprehensively outboxed early on, before someone dropped a fridge onto Fast (slow) Eddie's back.

The win over Byrd was very good - and announced Povetkin as a serious talent - but what has he done since? In his first 10 or so fights he fought some serious opposition - everyone else since has been journeyman level.

Atlas seems to have done SFA for Povetkin's career - other than wasting 2 years of it - and I'm left feeling that had he tried and failed against Wlad the first time - 2 years ago - we'd all have a more positive outlook upon the HW division.

Incidentally - I know that Wlad and Vit are once again, copping some flack for not fighting each other (there's a bitchy piece about the fact that because they won't fight each other we've been forced to watch WWs in Sportscenter magazine in Canada this month) - but to be fair - when Wlad was alone and dominant - before Vit made his comeback - most people STILL weren't enamoured with the division (I'm a self confessed exception - I like watching the HWs - including the Kbros).

Super D Boon wrote: few weeks ago we saw Alexander Povetkin get a generous decision win over Marco Huck. This was his first fight without Teddy Atlas, and he didn't look good. He appeared to be exhausted after just five rounds, for a champion that is not good enough.

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Two things wrong with this statement. Firstly, it was not a generous decision at all. Povetkin clearly won the fight. Huck only won two clear rounds. Secondly Povetkin is not really a champion, more a fake.

Marco Huck is best described in the complimetary sense as a well conditioned athlete who throws punches.
To be blunt though, Huck is a talentless brawler who couldn't even beat a fat, overrated fake champion in Povetkin. He can only beat fat toilet cleaners at cruiserweight. The fact a no mark like Huck can be called a "world champion" is testament to how far down the gutter the sport of boxing has slid. The worst world champion in boxing today.