By Ryan Songalia

New Jersey-based promotional outfit Main Events is refuting claims by Alexander Povetkin's manager Vladimir Hrunov that an offer to match the unbeaten Povetkin with two-division champion Tomasz Adamek was never made.

As reported by this writer on BoxingScene.com on December 10, Main Events CEO Kathy Duva claimed that she had made an offer to match the 43-1 (28 KO) Adamek of Jersey City, NJ by way of Zywiec, Poland with the 20-0 (15 KO) 2004 Olympic gold medalist Povetkin of Moscow, Russia.

She added that a match between the former light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion Adamek and Povetkin, who was ringside for Adamek's most recent bout on December 9 in Newark, NJ against Vinny Maddalone, is the only Adamek bout HBO would be interested in buying outside of a matchup with either Klitschko brother or David Haye.

To bolster their claims, Main Events has released two emails exclusively to BoxingScene.com from German-based Sauerland Event general manager Chris Meyer, the promoter of Povetkin, where Meyer states that they weren't interested in making the fight.

In an email addressed to Main Events' lawyer Pat English dated November 29, Meyer says:

"It looks to me at the moment that we Team Povetkin will likely move in another direction than a bout versus Adamek in March/April."

That email was proceeded by another dated December 15, where Meyer writes:

"This is to confirm again that I had confirmed to you a week or two ago that we are not interested in an Adamek/Povetkin match at this point of time. I informed you after having consulted with all members of the Russian team, including Vlad Hrunov who is quoted in below article."

The aforementioned article, which was penned by Ruslan Chikov and also ran on BoxingScene.com, quotes Hrunov as saying that he had "talked with [Povetkin] and he told me that nobody spoke to him about this topic."

He added, "When I was last in the States, I was told the managers of [Adamek] were interested in a fight between Adamek and Sasha, but at that point we already had signed a contract with Nicolai Firtha. Then I told them negotiations are possible after December 18 and advised them to contact our promoter, Wilfried Sauerland."

When reached for comment, Meyer did not deny sending the emails but defended his decision to decline on the Adamek fight, citing business and scheduling conflicts with German TV.

"Main Events wanted to have the Povetkin match on HBO; any HBO date needs far in advance planning. At the time the match was proposed to us in early
November, we were simply not in a position to commit to a date four or five months in advance.

"Also, HBO needs the show to take place prime time USA. Povetkin is assigned to our major TV network in Germany (ARD) and he is scheduled to appear
on a certain number of shows on this network. The actual dates are flexible, however he needs to appear in our shows that are staged in Germany or
nearby Europe.

"A bout versus Adamek somewhere in New Jersey or New York in March or April 2011 doesn't make sense for Povetkin at this point of time."

When asked for comment, Duva said, "The emails speak for themselves."

Povetkin is scheduled to face the 19-7-1 (8 KO) Firtha this Saturday at the Max Schmelling Halle in Berlin, Germany.

Ryan Songalia is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and contributes to GMANews.TV and the Filipino Reporter newspaper. He can be reached at ryan@ryansongalia.com . An archive of his work can be found at www.ryansongalia.com . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ryansongalia .