By Alexander Pavlov

The WBA "regular" heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (24-0, 16KOs) is working very hard on his stamina with new trainer Kostya Tszyu. He defends his title against former champion Hasim Rahman (50-7-2, 41KOs) on September 29th in Hamburg, Germany.

In his last bout, against WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck in February, Povetkin tired in the late rounds and came close to losing his championship. He won a twelve round majority decision. Povetkin wants to avoid the same incident playing out in the upcoming fight with Rahman.

"With Kostya we are hard at work on endurance and strength. It is necessary to carry out the entire twelve rounds with a high rhythm and without getting tired. At first it was very hard. We trained with intensity and without interruption for several rounds in a row, until the arms are ready to fall off from exhaustion. Thus, we're training for endurance. We perform all of these exercises very seriously," Povetkin said.

Alexander Pavlov covers boxing for Sportbox.ru