By Ruslan Chikov
International promoter and agent, Vladimir Hryunov, would like to bring WBA "regular" champion Alexander Povetkin (25-0, 17KOs) back in the ring in May 17th in Moscow, as part of the event which features a WBA cruiserweight title fight between Denis Lebedev and Guillermo Jones. Povetkin has been inactive since last September one-sided blowout of Hasim Rahman. Hryunov wants to him to have one more match before a mandatory fight with unified champion Wladimir Klitschko. The WBA ordered Klitschko to face Povetkin by the end of August. Klitschko will first defend his title on May 4th against Francesco Pianetta.
Hryunov says their first option for Povetkin was British heavyweight David Price, but he was quickly ruled out after suffering an unexpected TKO loss to Tony Thompson. The two candidates for Povetkin are Joe Hanks (21-0, 14KOs) of the United States and Polish contender Andrzej Wawrzyk (27-0, 13KOs).
"We have the intention to hold another fight before we match Alexander with Wladimir Klitschko. The leading candidate for fight with Alexander was Englishman David Price - if he successful with Tony Thompson. But Price lost, and now we are considering candidates who are highly rated by the WBA and have no defeats in the ring. Unfortunately, the choices are not so great and now the main candidates for the fight with Alexander are Andrzej Wawrzyk and Joe Hanks. Both are unbeaten and also younger than Alexander," Hryunov told Gazeta.