No. 1 - He's not fighting in a good enough era to be considered truly 'great' in my opinion. 2 - He just doesn't have the intangibles. Great work rate and combinations, but open defence and stalking style means Wlad & Vitali Klitschko would always be able to land and bomb him out.
He is coming off a serious injury so I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on this ocasion.
He's got a very beatable style; basically good all round but doesn't have the speed or reach to be a dominant boxer and doesn't have much power or strength; he's sort of a pressure fighter who doesn't really put that much pressure on his opponent.
I'm suprised the guys amateur credentials are being ignored. He's one of the most accomplished amateurs in years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Povetkin
I second this. He has beaten some quality fighters in his young start. Go back and look at the fighters Foreman, Holmes, Lewis and even Tyson fought in their first 15 fights. Granted, Alex is older but HW's in general are older today. Greatness? Only if he continues to progress (not a given) and the matches are made.
No one's ignoring his accomplishments as an amateur; it's just that one's amateur accolades don't always translate well into the professional ranks. He struggled way too much with the likes of Eddie Chambers and Jason Estrada to destined for greatness. Not to mention his conditioning and defense appear to be highly suspect. Luckily for him, the heavyweight division is complete crap, so it's possible that he could make a splash. I would favor both Klitschko brothers and perhaps Chagaev over Povetkin. I think he's even money against the likes of Haye, Arreola, or Valuev.
He's already a great amateur, i think of all major tournaments between 2001 and 2004 he ended #1 in every one of them (including the Olympics) except one, where he was #2 and twice avenged that loss later. As a professional, who knows? Way too early to tell. His dominant wins over Donald and Byrd were excellent and beating a 33-0 Chambers, who just beat Peter, this early in his career certainly was impressive. However he looked mediocre last night. Combinations and workrate are his strengths and while he threw some combo's, his workrate was way too low, especially if you consider it was only a 10-round fight. If it went over 12, i think Estrada would've been TKO'd, but to be fair, he has an excellent jaw. One other thing, i think he's a very slow starter... against Chambers he took a few rounds to get his punchrate up but against Estrada he never really got started. Kind of surprising actually, to see a slow starter do so well in 3 or 4 round amateur bouts.
Maybe hes fading already then, he is 29 and stamina/workrate is 1 of the first things to fade. Or maybe he just couldn't be assed for Jason Estrada
He seemingly doesn't seem to be a Breland amateur to pro fighter, what with the talent not equating to the pro's well at all. As for Chambers, so what? We're talking about a guy with Tubbs level handspeed. That's a big asset, and he more then likely isn't a easy match for anyone himself.
I don't quite understand your first sentence, but in terms of Chambers, it is my belief that both Klitschko brothers lose at the very most one round to Chambers while knocking him out in the process. If Povetkin can't dominate a small, out of shape heavyweight like Chambers, then I can't see him being destined for greatness. That, plus his defense leaves a lot left to be desired.
This may be part of the reason, but that would still be a bad sign. I think the fact that Estrada was shorter than him also contributed to the trouble. His style is suited for a short fighter.
Size has... what to do with it? Did you miss Vitali/Gomez? Chamber's is sure as **** a better fighter then Gomez at this point, and in that vein Chamber is far larger then Gomez who used to routinely weigh in at 190 pounds.
Yeah...Take that, ThinBlack. :hat Whoooooa, slow down. Holy's in decent shape. I think he's taking on Riddick Bowe, next. This content is protected