By Cliff Rold

If you’ve heard of 28-year old 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Alexander Povetkin (13-0, 10 KO, unrated) of Tschechow, Russia, this Saturday, with no U.S. TV, is one of the biggest days of the 2007 boxing calendar. 

If you’re asking “Who the hell is Alexander Povetkin?” then Saturday will determine whether that question is really worth answering.

Povetkin has underground buzz but, in only his fourteenth fight, is he really ready for the challenge in front of him?  Even infrequent viewers know the name Chris Byrd (40-3, 21 KO); the 37-year old from Flint, Michigan has faced a laundry list of top heavyweights in the last ten years.  Wins over Vitali Klitschko, David Tua and Evander Holyfield and runs with IBF and WBO belts get one’s name out there even if all Byrd’s efforts haven’t been scintillating.

Byrd after all has never been a heavyweight in the classic sense.  He doesn’t land highlight reel KO’s or engage in wars.  He jabs, slips, maneuvers.  He boxes.  It has extended his time near the top and his steady paychecks even if it has kept him away from the biggest dollars.  With a crushing loss to Wladimir Klitschko in the spring of 2006, a loss to the on-paper novice Povetkin could end all that.

At another time, ‘could’ would be ‘would,’ but these are the heavyweights of 2007 so skepticism is easy to come by.  Parity, and in some sense apathy, has kept the pool of big men shallow and recycling.  Povetkin, of all the division’s prospects and rising contenders, is in the best position to turn skepticism into hope for the future.

With so few fights, there are still more questions than answers.  Can Povetkin take a shot?  Don’t know.  Will he, at 6’2 and around 225 lbs, be able to handle much bigger men like Nicolay Valuev?  Don’t know.  Can he handle an elite, slick, veteran boxer?  Again, don’t know.

Yet.

That answer comes this weekend.

The boxing world does know this: in his few fights since turning professional in June 2005, Povetkin has been brought along like a man expected to provide answers.  His 13 professional opponents have a combined record of 227-71; only one of those foes entered the ring with a losing record.  Beginning with Friday Ahunanya in April 2006, he has begun moving through the sort of progression fights that one only sees in the bluest-chip prospects.  Game veterans Imamu Mayfield and David Bostice failed to hear the final bells; crafty former U.S. Olympian Larry Donald heard it but lost every round along the way in Povetkin’s last outing.

The boxing world can also know this: weak heavyweight divisions have, in the past, been a great breeding ground for dominant young champions.  The field in the dying days of the Jack Johnson era was run asunder by Jack Dempsey; the mess of the post-Gene Tunney years was cleared aside by a meteoric Joe Louis; and the cocaine-fueled waste of the mid-1980s was wasted by a young Mike Tyson.

Given the current landscape, the right fighter could have a field day.  Given the demographics of the division, the odds are strong that the right fighter is coming from the former Soviet Union. 

Before the histrionics start, I’m not saying Povetkin will be the next Dempsey, Louis or Tyson.  I am saying that, given his excellent jab, power, crowd-pleasing pressure style and amateur pedigree, he has the best shot of anyone rising towards the top ten right now.

That Byrd is of another feather compared to the other men Povetkin has faced goes without saying.  It’s a bold choice, even as part of an elimination tournament by the IBF to generate a challenger for their current titlist, Wladimir Klitschko.  It’s a fight he can lose; one that the average fighter would lose at 13-0. 

Win and Povetkin will move on to another sanctioning fee…err, eliminator against the winner of November 2nd’s bout between Eddie Chambers (29-0, 16 KO) and former title challenger Calvin Brock (32-1, 23 KO).  Chambers would give him another cutie to counter; Brock would give him a seasoned boxer-puncher.  Either would ask a question.

If Povetkin answers correctly to all of the above, then he’ll be asked to carry even heavier loads…and no one will have to ask “Who the hell is Alexander Povetkin?” again.

My pick…Povetkin WUD Byrd.

 

Bute and Sturm: The gentleman I lead my column with last week are back for some encore time.  They earned it last weekend in two excellent contests.

Lucian Bute, the Montreal-based Romanian super middleweight, has graduated from rising contender to titlist and the championship of the world may not be far off.  With two crushing 11th round left hands in the corner that left then-IBF titlist Alejandro Berrio (26-5, 25 KO) of Colombia looking like a bobble head doll, Bute (21-0, 17 KO) sent a chilling message to both champion Joe Calzaghe (43-0, 32 KO, WBO titlist) and top contender Mikkel Kessler (39-0, 29 KO, WBA/WBC titlist).

That message was simple: their fight nine days from now (November 3rd, live on HBO, 9 PM EST/6 PM PST, and yes, I am excited enough to shill) is not the last great fight in the 168 lb. class.  Bute has been moved expertly and there is no reason for him to go straight to that challenge.  Having sold over 13,000 tickets in Montreal for the Berrio fight, Bute has earned the right to build the bank on his side for what could be a superfight.  But the future looms, brightly, for Bute and for boxing fans.

German middleweight Felix Sturm (28-2-1, 12 KO, WBA titlist) is already well acquainted with alphabelt gold; he’s also becoming acquainted with consistently entertaining fights.  His rousing draw Saturday with Louisville, Kentucky native Randy Griffin (24-1-3, 12 KO) was a treat for those who saw it and a welcome addition to Sturm’s exciting encounters with Oscar De La Hoya and Javier Castillejo.  A steady stream of jabs, hard counters and brutal body work from both men made all twelve rounds a paycheck earned on their own.  That neither man was declared the victor mattered little; they both earned the right to walk away a winner and a rematch would be a credit to the game.

Is either Griffin or Sturm a serious threat to World champion Kelly Pavlik (31-0, 29 KO)?  Probably not.  Each would give the champ hard rounds and force him to bring his best to the table though.  Not every fighter can be the best in class, but every fighter, just like every person fighting to get by outside the ring, can be expected to bring their classy best when called upon.  These two men did and what more can be asked for than that?

Welterweight may be the apple of the boxing world’s eye, but no two twin divisions offer more bang for one’s buck than Middleweight and Super Middleweight right now.  Boxing fans are a lucky bunch to have all three divisions to look forward to right now (among about half a dozen others).  Screw Sports Illustrated if they are ignoring it.

SI:  For those who didn’t catch it, Sports Illustrated ran a letter in their last issue from HBO Sports head honcho Ross Greenburg where Greenburg took them and the general mainstream media to task for rolling the ‘save boxing’ storyline throughout this year and for generally choosing to ignore the sport.  Ross was right on with his comments and SI would even prove him right later in the issue, giving mention Evander Holyfield’s loss to Sultan Ibragimov while ignoring the far more important, and likely more seen, lightweight battle between Americans Juan Diaz and Julio Diaz.  They don’t even know where the viewers are and rest assured that they’ll all but ignore Calzaghe-Kessler even as it fills up a football stadium.

The mainstream media in the mid-to-late nineties turned their nose up and boxing and left.  The failure to give fair coverage to the sport in this current exciting period, and even to fully cover UFC, reflects…I don’t know?  Feminization of media?  Classism?  Who knows?  I do know this.  UFC and boxing have both put on shows this year that outdrew the NBA All-Star game in TV viewers and none of boxing’s referees were shown to be gambling on the fights they referee.  Boxing doesn’t need saving.  It needs fair coverage. Give it and the sport is providing the action to thrive.

Dos Castillos:  If hardcore enough, one can make a case against the above argument about 160 and 168 as the premiere twin pair in boxing.  That argument would get my attention if the case was being made instead for 112 and 115 lbs.  Little more than a year ago, I would have made that case.  This weekend, former 115 lb. titlist Martin Castillo (32-2, 17 KO) of Mexico makes his third start since losing in July 2006 to Japanese novice Nobuo Nashiro and he was a big part of the argument.  The opponent, Jonathan Perez (13-2, 10 KO) is probably just there as fodder to pave the way to a Castillo-Jorge Arce bout early next year. 

Don’t count me as one of the overly excited.  While I love the little guys, Arce was violently exposed by Cristian Mijares earlier this year and Castillo, unless he’s lost it, should be able to finish that exposure.  As a credit, the fight will garner an audience and if that gets a Mijares in the ring with Castillo or a Castillo-Alexander Munoz III, that can’t be a bad thing for boxing even if, for the 30-year old Castillo, it could be too little too late.  He hasn’t looked the same since Munoz II, a brutal war that many thought he lost (I scored it even), and age is always a bigger impediment for smaller men. 

112 and 115 are, and have been for most of this decade, absolutely loaded with talent but due to regional promotional pockets haven’t ever made the fights that bring clarity to the top.  As evidenced in the last few weeks in the war between Fernando Montiel and Luis Melendez and the class of Dimitry Kirilov-Jose Navarro, these divisions deliver the goods.  Unless the very best fights can start to happen, they will still fall short of generating some greats.

Martin of course is not the only Castillo set to go this weekend.  Former World Lightweight king Jose Luis Castillo (55-8-1, 47 KO) of Mexico will attempt to rebuild from the ashes of a fourth-round body shot stoppage against World Jr. Welterweight Champion Ricky Hatton earlier this year.  The odds may be against him.  Castillo hasn’t looked the same since his two wars with Diego Corrales in 2005 and the Corrales fights weren’t the first wars of his career.  His opponent, Adan Casillas (20-6, 15 KO) is the sort of guy brought in to rebuild a fading name.  Any struggle at all for Castillo may be tantamount to the clanging of the final bell.

Cliff’s Notes…

Segura: I’d have written some good stuff on exciting Flyweight Giovanni Segura (18-0, 14 KO) but BoxingScene’s Jake Donovan already got to it this week.  Solid read.  He’ll be the chief undercard attraction for Martin Castillo on Telefutura Friday night, meaning boxing lovers should be expected to do some Spanish language TV…

Taylor: So former World Middleweight champ Jermain Taylor (27-1-1, 17 KO) is exercising his automatic rematch right with Kelly Pavlik, likely in a non-title catch-weight fight, and, hey, it’s a ballsy choice.  I can’t help but wonder if it’s also the only real economic choice.  Taylor’s stock was down in wins against Cory Spinks and Kasim Ouma and is up now on the basis of losing his title in a war.  I don’t think he beats Pavlik in a rematch, but I also don’t think Taylor beats any of the top dogs (Calzaghe, Kessler, Bute) right now at 168.  Might as well go for broke in the ring and take the best available cash out outside of it…

Final Flurry: Canadian 122 lb. toughie Steve Molitor (24-0, 10 KO, IBF titlist) has an interesting veteran challenge from Thailand’s Fahsan 3-K Battery (58-8-1, 35 KO).  Battery has won 14 in a row since losing to Manny Pacquiao in 2004.  Molitor is one to keep an eye on…All action Edison Miranda (28-2, 24 KO) makes his debut at 168 lbs. next Tuesday against Henry Porras (33-6-1, 25 KO).  It’s Miranda’s first go since losing to Kelly Pavlik in May and while he may never be a king, Miranda will never be in a fight I don’t want to see…If Jaidon Codrington runs the table, The Contender may finally have an actual legitimate top-ten contender on its hands.  Sakio Bika came into the show with such a rating (Ring Magazine) and a Codrington series win would lend itself to him taking it whether the final sees him face Bika or Sam Soliman.  We’ll know which it will be next week…Oh, and did I mention that Calzaghe-Kessler is almost here.  Just a little more than a week to go before the fight of the year.  Stone Cold flashback: Oh Hell Yeah!

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com