I was just watching Povetkin vs. Ed Mahone and boy was Povetkin shooting off those combos fast. Throwing punches much faster than he seems to today. Granted, I have only seen 3 Povetkin fights (vs. Mahone, Chambers, and Sykes), but it seems to me as though Povetkin isn't as fast as he used to be. Thoughts?...
Maybe his opponents are better and faster and that makes him look not as fast? I don't know. What I've seen of Povetkin is that he is a head hunter and not much of a body puncher but i've only seen a couple of his fights.
I've noticed something similar; it seems like his handspeed's been a bit slower than normal for him. Maybe it's a combination of fighting slightly faster fighters and injury rust, but I can't say for sure.
Being so inactive hardly helps these things. He's probably just lacking sharpness, I can't see why his physical talents would be eroding at this stage.
Confidence is also a good point. It doesn't matter who you are or who you are fighting you know if you havn't stepped in the ring for a long time there are doubts creeping in. That probably makes him a little more cautious to throw combinations with speed, he was probably looking for more safe options, just simple combinations. It's a travesty what they are doing with him, I like to watch him but he's being completely wasted. I've no idea what they are waiting for.
No, you are incorrect. Very much so. Just watch Povetkin's fight against Eddie Chambers; there's no way you can fail to see Povetkin's speed in that fight. The Estrada fight was an anomaly for Povetkin. For some reason he looked sluggish. I don't know why.
2008-07-19 2009-04-04 That should give some clues as to why. 9 months. That simply isn't good enough for any fighter, nevermind at this stage of his career. He should be fighting every 4 months.
Who else here thinks that Arreola would be a good fight for both fighters at the moment? It would be a make or break it fight for either. If Arreola won, he would redeem himself and be back in contention for a belt. If Povetkin won, he would shake of rumors of rust, and the inactivity, and would be adding another name to his record, on the way to a title shot.