Povetkin may be too small for Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, but he can always fight them and prove me wrong?
Former WBA World heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (31-1, 23 KOs), the star-crossed bomber from Chekhov, Russia, has been exonerated by and WBA and WBO after testing positive in a doping scandal a year ago. According to Andrey Ryabinsky, CEO of the World of Boxing, Povetkin has been ranked in the top 10. His relationship with the WBC and IBF has not yet been resolved.
In celebration of his re-admittance into boxing?s upper echelon, Povetkin?s next bout will be at Luzhniki in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, July 1 against Andrey Rudenko.(31-2, 10 KOs), from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. The WBA and WBO International titles will be on the line.
When asked about Povetkin?s fraught relationship with the sanctioning bodies, Ryabinsky told TASS, ?The World Boxing Council is starting to hear our side of the story and I think they will take some measures, but there are no timelines. Povetkin has been reinstated by the WBA and WBO and the titles are on the line. Povetkin will rejoin the International Boxing Federation, as well as in the WBC. We are gradually winning this fight.?
Despite a tendency to fail drug tests, for which he?s been absolved, Povetkin, whose only loss was to Wladimir Klitschko, is still an elite fighter. He may be too small to compete with Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, but he can always fight them (having already blown a fight with Deontay Wilder) and prove me wrong.
If ?Russian Vityaz? gets by Rudenko, whose two defeats were back-to-back unanimous decisions losses to Lucas Browne and Hughie Fury in 2014 and 2015, he might face the winner of the September 23 IBF title fight between Joseph Parker and Hughie Fury.
