Alexander Povetkin back in action on 16.10.09

Teddy is a smart guy, he's taking him along slowly- probably working on specific areas in his game. The thing that the Klitschkos are doing is just lining up the contenders and beating them one by one. Teddy knows better than that, Povetkin won't just stand in line, hes gonna work his way up there.

 

agreed. just because your next in line dont mean you are ready...... fight when you are ready and not just when you are chosen to by the elite in the division.

I think Arreola took his chances way too soon,and look at the result.

 

Credit to Povetkin for doing a great deal to this point. But even Teddy would have to admit, he can't learn much from this fight.

He is green to do a Klit fight and more seasoning is not out of line, but he should really not be fighting at this level at this point. Kinda shoots Teddy's credibility on tv complaining about mismatches.

 

It's a "test fight" to see how this relationship works in a real fight. Alex hasn't fought in 6 month and is in camp anyway, so why not get a tune-up or two, testing some new things intead of entering the Klitschko fight "green"?

 

Tune up!!!

 

Exactly.

At least he's not rushing back into the fray ****ing Chagaev style after illness and injury, only to be slaughtered.

 

I do not buy it. He had excellent amateur record, and he won the eliminator almost two years ago. That means IMO that if he is not ready now, he won't get ready no matter what. I understand he is not in hurry to fight Wlad and lose, but let's call it that way and stop talking BS about being "not ready".

 

The fight with Damon Reed is just a staybusy fight.

 

Povetkin is going backwards by accepting the Reed fight.

He needs better competition.

And what happened to his Russian trainer??

 

Ditto, what happened to the Russian trainer? Are they cotrainers now or is he fired? Can't really say the Russian trainer was doing any wrong as Povetkin was undefeated.

And its good Povetkin is taking a tune up fight before he goes for a showdown. One of the reasons I'm a big fan is that after only 14 pro fight, he took four fights against some of the best competition in todays albeit limited HW division. Byrd for a 14th fight is a pretty big risk, then Chambers right after for only a 15th fight. Sykes and Estrada after. Those aren't nearly amazing fighters, but they are all good fighters and each of them had way more than 15 fights when he fought them. Saying he has no balls because he takes an easy fight after those to get back in it is ridiculous, c'mon...

 

:good
Time to strip him of his IBF mandatory seat. If he wants to regress and fight cream puffs every 6 months fine, get out of the way and let someone else get in there.

 

About Povetkin's mandatory status... IBF's top 15 is (posted Sept 29, prior to Tua/Cameron):

1 Alexander Povetkin Russian Federation
2 NOT RATED
3 Eddie Chambers United States
4 Samuel Peter United States
5 Oleg Maskaev Kazakhstan
6 Alexander Dimitrenko Ukraine
7 Ruslan Chagaev Uzbekistan
8 Denis Boytsov Germany
9 James Toney United States
10 Hasim Rahman United States
11 Ray Austin United States
12 Kevin Johnson United States
13 Fres Oquendo Puerto Rico
14 Shane Cameron New Zealand
15 Michael Grant United States

Since Chambers and Johnson already have title fights lined up, it's not like anyone else is really deserving of the mandatory anyway. But, assuming Tua ends up in there, then I'd say if Povetkin doesn't arrange a Wlad fight immediately post-Chambers, a Tua-involved eliminator is in order.

 

Povetkin just needs to go ahead and fight Wladimir as soon as possible. He's earned his spot but it's time for a title fight.

 

What is he going to do? Teddy cannot improve him enough to ever beat Wlad. I guess he can fight his way around his number one status and wait for Vitali to retire and then work on whoever picks up that belt.