What do people see in Alexander Povetkin?

He stalled his career out in the late 2000s apparently at Teddy Atlas' advice and then took the Wlad fight which he had in the pipeline for years.

 

Nothing new to see here. Just another case of "flavor of the month" sindrome.

As many times before, you have a very good fighter like Povetkin who, for whatever reasons, suddenly is treated like an ATG. This fad will go for a while.

Dont worry, soon or later Povetkin's fad will be over and we will move to the next "flavor of the month"

 

It's a combination of being skilled and fun to watch. Those two factors caused a number of fighters to become overrated. Pov also scored a huge and shocking KO over a hyped up Whyte when he was already shot. That win led to a surge in his popularity. I was always a fan, the guy was one of the best combo punchers i've ever seen at heavyweight.

 

I liked Fast Eddie and consider him the best win of Povetkin's career - but that's a bit of a stretch. He had excellent guard and elite speed in his prime, but was also small, lacked mobility (for a small Heavyweight in particular) and had serious conditioning issues (what costed him Povetkin fight, since He dominated the early goings).

Byrd's resume is quite a bit superior and while I understand that head-to-head comparision is another thing, Byrd also looked better while fighting better fighters.

 

I don't think Chmabers lost to Povetkin due to conditioning. I think he just sort of gave up and couldn't adapt once Povetkin started trying harder.

As for his level, before and after that fight, he beat Guinn, Brock, a flabby Peter, and Dimitrenko who was prime, undefeated and top ten. That's the same level as Byrd and Byrd at his best would've lost similarly to Povetkin and did get his ass kicked by Wlad. Byrd was never a dominant fighter. He was just good enough to narrowly beat top twenty fighters and guys who were rounding out the top ten. Even the Tua fight (his best win), was only about a 7-5 victory.

 

His team thought so after the fight. He was throwing like 15 punches per round at the end and while You can probably make an argument that it was psychological, He certainly didn't look in peak shape physically and got himself down in weight for his next major fight against Wlad.

It's not like Chambers was dominant on high level. Brock fight could've gone either way. Peter fight was competitive - and don't think You'll find many people who will agree with You that those guys were better than the contenders that Byrd was edging out close fights against.

 

It's all the same stuff. I'm sure Chambers could've "won" while down by 5 to 7 points against a Vitali who quit with a serious injury, and beaten Harris, Oquendo, Williamson and a horrible version version of Holyfield. He might not have matched Byrd's performance against Tua but it wouldn't be that surprising if he did. On the other hand, he'd probably beat Golota and he might make Ike look a lot worse by staying in thr middle of the ring instead of laying on the ropes like an idiot. That's if Chambers could stay in top form for as long as Byrd.

The main difference between the two is that Chambers' window was only for about three years whereas Byrd had about twice that. But their actual level was about the same.

 

Byrd may have been more likely than Chambers to cause that shoulder injury. IIRC, Holyfield also suffered one against Byrd.

 

So are we giving Eubank Jr. credit for ending Korobov’s career? Does Chisora get slick points for Vitali’s lesser but still significant shoulder injury in that fight? I’ve never heard anyone ever get credit for something like that except for Byrd.

It sounds a lot like fan logic if Byrd is credited with causing injuries while being on defense.

I also don’t give Vitali full credit for a knockout against Solis and a punch actually preceded the blown out knee.

And I've never seen anyone actually pinpoint a defensive move by Byrd that cuased the injury. You'd think someone would've found it by now.

 

Dunno what you mean by credit. It's not about how good a fighter Byrd was. It's a question of whether "Chambers could've 'won' while down by 5 to 7 points against a Vitali who quit with a serious injury." I don't think Vitali is likely to mess up his shoulder against Chambers, so I don't think Chambers wins that way.

 

Okay, so take the evidence based approach and show me that Byrd caused an injury in a way that wasn't flukish. If you do that, we'll have a better idea of if we can assume that Chambers gets the same injured Vitali in front of him.

A lot of times injuries like that are caused by things like...the guy throws an overhand right and you stick out your left arm pushing out where his elbow is. The guy's arm then moves out awkwardly and his shoulder tears.

But Byrd gets his sickness points even though nobody can come up with a sequence that caused the injury.

 

Couldn't pinpoint the moment for you, and I don't have a biomechanical breakdown.

For whatever it's worth, here's my reasoning:

* Byrd was unusual in the amount of effort he'd put into showboating his defensive skills. Perhaps to compensate for his not-great offense. So people are swinging and missing against him more than average. Probably not good for the other guy's shoulder support muscles.

* Byrd would manipulate the opponent's left hand and arm with his right hand a lot from his southpaw stance. Probably not good for the other guy's shoulder support muscles.

* The combination of these two things strikes me as something that would be hard on people who are older or easily injured.

* Vitali was easily injured; Holyfield was older.

* Both of these guys got left rotator cuff injuries against Byrd. When two guys injure the same muscles on the same side against the same guy, I am less inclined to believe it's a fluke.

EDIT: He'd also spin people around more often, though without checking back, I don't recall whether that used the other guy's lead arm or shoulder as a leverage point.

 

His resume is so thin it's see through, Boone Kirkman had at least as many good wins:
Eddie Machen'
Doug Jones
Jimmy Ellis

 

I’ll withhold giving slick points until I see some video evidence.

 

Haven't got any video evidence (of the moment of injury?), so slick points would be appreciated, since IIRC you work in a health field relevant to sports medicine.