That makes sense. I was surprised to hear that Povetkin would be on Huck's undercard because he is the bigger name than Huck himself. However, by the fight date I would assume that Povetkin will be fighting only twice this year.
Based on what is Povetkin a bigger name than Huck? Was he a world champ or what? Or maybe you consider his ridiculous WBA "whaterver" title worth something?
The only thing Povetkin has achieved that Huck has not is the Olympic Gold Medal. In terms of who has the "bigger name" nowadays I guess the best way to find out is by having a look at the numbers = viewing figures/ratings. The only ones available that I know of are the respective German TV ratings. Povetkin and Huck's fight against each other two years ago had very good ratings of 6.3 million / 24.7% Povetkin had the highest ratings vs Wladimir (11.02 million / 35.4%) but that one doesn't really count for obvious reasons. His best ratings result next to that came vs Chagaev who of course is relatively well known in Germany as well - 3.35 million / 17.1% Huck's best ratings were against Nakash (4.5 million / 18%) and Richards (4.31 million / 22.3%) - I guess it's fair to say he drew those ratings on his own since nobody in Germany had ever heard of these two opponents before.
I didn't know that. Could you provide me with source for those ratings since I was really searching for German TV ratings for boxing fights and couldn't find them. In that case I guess that they are similar in terms of popularity in Germany. Povetkin had big numbers because he was fighting well known names but Huck also drew a lot and it was on his own. Still, it didn't make sense for Povetkin to fight on Huck's undercard.
There you go: http://sportforen.de/showthread.php?49680-Boxen-Einschaltquoten-Sammelthread :thumbsup EDIT: I made a mistake, the Huck fights I listed weren't the ones with the highest ratings. That honor belongs to Huck vs Minto with 5.04 million viewers / 25.6%
Thanks. Surprised to see that Wladimir had 11-12 million viewers for Wach and Mormeck and only 11 for Povetkin. Klitschko-Povetkin set the record ratings in many countries. As for Povetkin, he probably draws top ratings in Russia which are overall bigger than Huck's. That's why I said that he is the bigger name. Also, he was the "A side" against Huck in their match.