Alexander Vladimirovich Powetkin

Alexander Powetkin
Data
Birth Name	Alexander Vladimirovich Powetkin
Fight name	Sascha, Russian Vityaz, Zar, The White Lion
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Russia
birthday	2nd September 1979
place of birth	Kursk
style	Left delivery
size	1.88 m
Range	1.91 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	39
Victories	36
Knockout victories	25th
Defeats	2
draw	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Alexander Vladimirovich Powetkin medal table
Boxing
Russia
Olympic games
gold	2004	Super heavyweight
Amateur world championships
gold	2003	Super heavyweight
Amateur European Championships
gold	2002	Super heavyweight
gold	2004	Super heavyweight

Alexander Povetkin ( Russian Александр Владимирович Поветкин , * 2. September 1979 in Kursk ) is a Russian professional boxer in the heavyweight and former (due to the former status Wladimir Klitschko as the WBA "super champion" ) regular world champion on the version of the WBA (the status of the Super Champions is ranked higher).

amateur

Even at the European Cadet Championship (age group U-17) Powetkin came second in the light middleweight division. He later rose to the super heavyweight division and was the world's most successful amateur boxer in this weight class between 2001 and 2004. From 2000 to 2002 he was Russian champion three times in a row, in 2003 he lost to Alexei Lesin in the final .

Further successes during this time were numerous international tournament wins. For example, he won two European championship titles (2002 in Perm and 2004 in Pula ), the world championship title in 2003 in Bangkok and the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens . His record was 125-7 or 125-20 depending on the source, with almost all defeats at the start of his career.

Well-known opponents he beat were Alexei Lesin, Roberto Cammarelle (five wins), Muchtarchan Dildabekow , Sebastian Köber , Pedro Carrión , Islam Timursijew and Rustam Saidov .

Professional career

In 2005 Powetkin was signed to Germany by Wilfried Sauerland , he was considered a great talent. His professional debut took place on June 11, 2005. After good performances in his first professional fights against as yet less demanding opponents, he defeated Willie Chapman in his fifth fight, who, despite a negative match record, could show remarkable knockout victories against DaVarryl Williamson and T. J. Wilson.

Powetkin's next fight against Richard Bango , the Nigerian silver medalist at the 1992 Olympic Games, showed a progression in boxing; Powetkin beat Bango in the second round knockout. The clear points win against Friday Ahunanya on April 22, 2006, who had fought in a draw against Dominick Guinn and was about 50th in the computer rankings, had to be laboriously worked out.

In December 2006, he beat the American Imamu Mayfield , former cruiserweight title holder in Moscow , who had defeated Peter Okhello in 2002, who boxed against Oleg Maskayev for the WBC title at the same event . Powetkin then boxed against the experienced American David Bostice, against whom Luan Krasniqi had previously only managed a difficult point win and who had also gone the distance with Calvin Brock , but was beaten by Wladimir Klitschko within two rounds. Powetkin put pressure on from the start and won through a technical knockout in the second round.

In his first appearance as a main fighter, he won a clear point decision against the 40-year-old veteran Larry Donald in Moscow in June 2007 . Powetkin had to box in this duel for the first time in his professional career over the distance of ten laps. After the victory, Powetkin received a placement in the top 15 of the IBF Association, which enabled him to take part in an elimination tournament to determine the mandatory challenger of IBF World Champion Wladimir Klitschko. During this tournament he defeated ex-world champion Chris Byrd on October 27, 2007 in Erfurt by technical knockout when Byrd's father and trainer Joe Byrd canceled the fight in the eleventh round because it had no chance. Powetkin then competed in Berlin on January 26, 2008 against Eddie Chambers , who had previously been unbeaten in thirty professional fights , was able to prevail against him on points and thus acquired first place in the IBF world rankings and the right to IBF world champion Wladimir Klitschko to challenge.

Since Wladimir Klitschko initially had to defend his WBO title, the fight against the Ukrainian was planned for December 13, 2008 in Mannheim. In the meantime, Powetkin won another four-round build-up battle against Taurus Sykes in Chekhov in July 2008. In October 2008 Powetkin injured his left ankle while preparing for the duel against Klitschko and had to cancel this appointment. Nevertheless, he retained his position as a mandatory challenger for the IBF title and his ranking as well as the right to box for the IBF World Championship by September 13, 2009 at the latest. However, this period was later extended to 2010 in consultation with the IBF.

On April 4, 2009 Powetkin returned to the ring after the injury break and nine months of inactivity and won in Düsseldorf against the American Jason Estrada , also Olympic participant in 2004 in the super heavyweight class, with some difficulty over ten rounds on points. He then changed coach. The American Teddy Atlas , known as the ex-trainer of Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer , replaced Waleri Below.

As a result, Powetkin won two development fights, against the US American Leo Nolan and the Mexican Javier Mora, in preparation for the world championship fight against Klitschko, each prematurely. At the end of March 2010, after Klitschko successfully defended his title against Eddie Chambers, Powetkin and Klitschko were instructed by the IBF to reach an agreement regarding the compulsory defense of the IBF title. After that did not succeed by the end of June, the fight was auctioned off by the IBF. Klitschko's K2 Promotions acquired the event rights with a bid of $ 8.3 million versus a bid of $ 4.3 million from Sauerland Event ; the fight was to take place on September 11th in Frankfurt's Commerzbank-Arena . However, since Powetkin did not appear at the first official press conference to announce the title fight and did not sign the fight contract in time, Klitschko's request was revoked of his status as the mandatory challenger; Powetkin was downgraded in the IBF world rankings as a result. On October 16, 2010 Alexander Powetkin won in the Olimpijski Sports Palace in Chekhov against the Nigerian Teke Oruh by knockout in the fifth round. He won his next fight on December 18, 2010 against the American Nicolai Firtha, clearly on points.

After Wladimir Klitschko had defeated the WBA world champion David Haye in July 2011 and thus united the world championship titles of the IBF, WBO and WBA associations, he was declared a so-called superchampion by the WBA . The first and second place in the WBA rankings, ex-WBA world champions Ruslan Chagayev and Powetkin, should then box for the regular WBA world title, which has thus been declared vacant . This fight took place on August 27, 2011 in Erfurt and was clearly won by Powetkin over twelve rounds on points (116-112, 117-113, 117-113). In his first title defense Powetkin defeated the 42-year-old American Cedric Boswell in December 2011 with a technical knockout in the eighth round.

In January 2012 there was a separation from trainer Teddy Atlas. Already in preparation for the Chagayev fight there had been initial disagreements, as Atlas was working as a boxing commentator for the television station ESPN parallel to his coaching activity and insisted that Powetkin should travel to the USA for training while the Powetkin team was there preferred to prepare for a fight in Europe at home in Chekhov. The new coach was Alexander Simin, the former coach of, among others, Yuri Arbachakov , Orsubek Nazarow and Nikolai Walujew . Powetkin played his second title defense against Marco Huck . Huck, then reigning WBO cruiserweight world champion, had not previously contested a heavyweight fight. But since, like Powetkin, he was also under contract with the Sauerland boxing stable, he was given the chance to box for the WBA heavyweight title without having to qualify for it beforehand. The fight took place on February 25, 2012 in the Stuttgart Porsche Arena and was won by Powetkin just on points, although Huck brought him to the brink of knockout defeat several times. On September 28, 2012 Powetkin defended his world championship belt against the former world champion Hasim Rahman with no chance by technical knockout in the second round.

In May 2013 he won early against Andrzej Wawrzyk (27-0).

In October 2013 he lost in the IBF / WBA / WBO / IBO title fight unanimously on points against Wladimir Klitschko . It was criticized that Klitschko clung quite often at the beginning of the fight and laid his elbows on his opponent. Powetkin was therefore already exhausted after a few laps and went down three times in the 7th lap. Due to the defeat Powetkin lost the title of regular world champion of the WBA, while Wladimir Klitschko continued to be super world champion of the WBA and world champion of the IBF / WBO / IBO associations.

After the loss to Klitschko, the WBA started a fight against the Cuban Luis Ortiz for 2014 . In that fight Powetkin had the chance to become regular WBA world champion again. But Powetkin didn't want to box against Ortiz and preferred to play against a reasonable opponent.

After Powetkin's contract with Sauerland Event expired at the end of 2013, he signed a contract with Russian promoter Andrej Ryabinsky for a period of three years. In May 2014 he won early against Manuel Charr .

A fight with Deontay Wilder was supposed to take place in May 2016 . However, Powetkin had previously given a positive doping test for meldonium and the fight was postponed. A fight against Bermane Stiverne should take place in December 2016 . Powetkin tested positive again, however, this time for ostarine . In the new doping test on December 13, 2016, Powetkin tested negative, at the same time it was noted that the sample from December 6, 2016 only contained 10 pg, i.e. 0.00000000001 g oyster. Powetkin was banned for a year and fined $ 250,000. The WBC increased the suspension to life. Powetkin took action against this successfully, so that he was eligible to start again in October 2017. On September 22, 2018, Povetkin experienced his second professional defeat by TKO in the seventh round against Anthony Joshua .

Others

Powetkin trains and lives in Chekhov (Russia). During his time as an amateur boxer, he was also a successful kickboxer and was junior world champion in this sport in 1997, world champion in 1999 and European champion in 2000. His younger brother Wladimir (* 1980) competed in six professional cruiserweight fights in 2007 and 2008.

He describes Alexander Borissowitsch Lebsjak as his personal, athletic role model .

Alexander Powetkin has been married to the Russian model and "Miss Kursk 2008", Yevgenia Merkulova (* 1988), in his second marriage since July 6, 2013. From his first marriage he has a daughter named Arina (* 2003).

Alexander Powetkin is a committed non-smoker and anti-alcoholic.

Since 2004 Powetkin has seen himself religiously as a Rodist and has expressed that this Slavic-pagan faith is closer to him than Christianity .

Powetkin has a tattoo of Svarog , a figure from Slavic mythology , on his left arm .

Powetkin is involved in Russian politics. He is a member of the Kremlin United Russia party and has a seat in the regional parliament of Kursk Oblast .

List of professional fights

36 wins (25 knockout wins), 2 defeats , 1 draw
year	Day	place	opponent	Result for Powetkin
2005	June 11th	bigBOX Allgäu , Kempten , Germany	Muhammed Ali Durmaz	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	September 3	International Congress Center , Berlin , Germany	Cerrone Fox	Victory / TKO 4th round
	October 1	EWE Arena , Oldenburg , Germany	John Castle	Victory / abandonment 1st round
	November 12th	Alsterdorfer Sporthalle , Hamburg , Germany	Stephane Tessier	Points victory (unanimously) / 4 rounds
	December 17th	Max-Schmeling-Halle , Berlin , Germany	Willie Chapman	Victory / TKO 5th round
2006	4th of March	EWE Arena , Oldenburg , Germany	Richard Bango	Victory / KO 2nd round
	April 22	SAP Arena , Mannheim , Germany	Friday Ahunanya	Points victory (unanimous) / 6 rounds
	3rd of June	TUI Arena , Hanover , Germany	Livin Castillo	Victory / TKO 4th round
	September 23rd	Rittal Arena , Wetzlar , Germany	Ed Mahone	Victory / TKO 5th round
	10th of December	Olimpijski Hall, Moscow , Russia	Imamu Mayfield	Victory / TKO 3rd round
2007	3 March	StadtHalle , Rostock , Germany	David Bostice	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	May 26	Jako Arena , Bamberg , Germany	Patrice L'Heureux	Victory / KO 2nd round
	June 30th	Olimpijski Hall, Moscow , Russia	Larry Donald	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	October 27	Exhibition hall , Erfurt , Germany	Chris Byrd	Victory / TKO 11th round
2008	January 26th	Tempodrom , Berlin , Germany	Eddie Chambers	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	July 19	Olimpijski Sports Palace, Chekhov , Russia	Taurus Sykes	Victory / KO 4th round
2009	4. April	Burg-Wächter Castello , Düsseldorf , Germany	Jason Estrada	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	December 5th	Arena , Ludwigsburg , Germany	Leo Nolan	Victory / KO 3rd round
2010	March 13th	Max-Schmeling-Halle , Berlin , Germany	Javier Mora	Victory / TKO 5th round
	October, 16th	Olimpijski Sports Palace, Chekhov , Russia	Teke Oruh	Victory / KO 5th round
	December 18th	Max-Schmeling-Halle , Berlin , Germany	Nicolai Firtha	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
2011	August 27	Exhibition hall , Erfurt , Germany	Ruslan Chagayev regular WBA heavyweight championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	3rd of December	Hartwall Arena , Helsinki , Finland	Cedric Boswell regular WBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / KO 8th round
2012	February 25	Porsche-Arena , Stuttgart , Germany	Marco Huck regular WBA heavyweight title defense	Point victory (majority decision) / 12 rounds
	September 29th	Alsterdorfer Sporthalle , Hamburg , Germany	Hasim Rahman regular WBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / TKO 2nd round
2013	17th of May	Crocus City Hall, Krasnogorsk , Russia	Andrzej Wawrzyk regular WBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	5th October	Olimpijski Hall, Moscow , Russia	Wladimir Klitschko IBF / IBO / WBA / WBO Heavyweight World Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2014	30th May	Luzhniki Sports Palace , Moscow , Russia	Manuel Charr WBC International Heavyweight Championship	Victory / KO 7th round
	October 24th	Luzhniki Sports Palace , Moscow , Russia	Carlos Takam WBC Silver Heavyweight Championship	Victory / KO 10th round
2015	May 22	Luzhniki Sports Palace , Moscow , Russia	Mike Perez WBC silver heavyweight title defense	Victory / TKO 1st round
	November 4th	TatNeft Arena , Kazan , Russia	Mariusz Wach WBC silver heavyweight title defense	Victory / TKO 12th round
2016	December 17th	IEC Expo, Yekaterinburg , Russia	Johann Duhaupas	Victory / KO 6th round
2017	July 1	Luzhniki Sports Palace , Moscow , Russia	Andriy Rudenko WBA-Continental Heavyweight Championship WBO-International Heavyweight Championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	15th December	Palace of Game Sports , Yekaterinburg , Russia	Christian Hammer WBO International Heavyweight Title Defense WBA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2018	March 31	Principality Stadium , Cardiff , Wales , UK	David Price WBO-International Heavyweight Title Defense WBA-Intercontinental Heavyweight Title Defense	Victory / KO 5th round
	September 22	Wembley Stadium , London , England , UK	Anthony Joshua IBF / IBO / WBA / WBO World Heavyweight Championship	Loss / TKO 7th round
2019	August 31	O2 arena , Greenwich	Hughie Fury WBA International Heavyweight Championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	December 7th	Diriyah Arena, Diriyah , Saudi Arabia	Michael Hunter	Tie (split decision) / 12 rounds
2020	August 22nd	Matchroom Fight Camp, Brentwood, UK	Dillian Whyte	Victory / TKO 5th round
Source: Alexander Wladimirowitsch Powetkin in the BoxRec database

See also

• List of heavyweight boxing champions
• List of fights for world heavyweight boxing titles

Web links

• Alexander Powetkin in the BoxRec database
• Alexander Powetkin in the BoxRec Encyclopaedia
• Alexander Wladimirowitsch Powetkin in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Portrait of Alexander Powetkin ( Memento from October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on Kasten.com
2. ↑ Povetkin in poor condition stumbles against Huck, but remains WBA world champion. In: boxen.de. February 25, 2012, accessed October 4, 2013 . 
3. ↑ Klitschko becomes Clinchko: Without gloss against Powetkin. (No longer available online.) In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . October 6, 2013, archived from the original on February 21, 2014 ; accessed on February 15, 2014 . 
4. ↑ After this defeat and a short rest for the regular WBA title, it became known that Povetkin would be able to box again for the regular WBA World Championship in his next fight. BOX WORLD
5. ↑ Alexander Povetkin vs Manuel Charr - What is it really about ...
6. ↑ Box Sport No. 3, March 2014, page 6
7. ↑ Former heavyweight champion Alexander Powetkin suspected of doping bz-berlin.de May 14, 2016
8. ↑ World title fight canceled after Alexander Povetkin fails drug test theguardian.com December 17, 2016
9. ↑ Povetkin's Drug Test From December 13 Comes Back Clean , boxingscene.com , December 23, 2016
10. ↑ Ban against Powetkin lifted
11. ↑ Elvira Kornijenko: Русский Витязь Александр Поветкин встретился с молодежью (German Powetkin: The Russian Vitjaz Akexander meets with young people). In: nevworker.ru. November 26, 2014, accessed September 16, 2018 (Russian). 
12. ↑ Andrej Poluchin: Боксер Поветкин женился накануне боя с Кличко (German boxer Powetkin married Klitschko on the eve of the fight). In: Российская газета (Russian newspaper). July 6, 2013, accessed February 15, 2014 (Russian). 
13. ↑ Konstantin Ustjanzew: Поветкин: Уайлдер - сильный соперник (German Powetkin: Wilder - a strong opponent). In: Championat.com. July 6, 2013, accessed December 25, 2015 (Russian). 
14. ↑ Blog: Александр Поветкин: «Я язычник. По духу и совести мне ближе то, что было до христианства »(German: Alexander Powetkin:" I am a pagan. In spirit, that which preceded Christianity is closer to me). In: Sports.ru. 29 January 2014 .ru , accessed September 16, 2018 (Russian). 

predecessor	Office	successor
David Haye vacant	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) August 27, 2011 to October 5, 2013	vacant Ruslan Chagayev