By Mark Vester
Alexander Povetkin (16-0, 12KOs) stopped Taurus Sykes (25-5, 7KOs) in the fourth-round at the Olimpyskiy Sports Palace in Chekhov. The fight was a tuneup bout for Povetkin, who now moves forward with his mandatory title shot at IBF/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. Povetkin is the mandatory contender in the IBF rankings after winning a tournament by beating Chris Byrd and Eddie Chambers.
The fight was a complete mismatch. Povetkin hurt Sykes with a hard right in the first-round. Sykes went down several times in the fight, but the ref ruled almost all of them as slips.
In the third, he appeared to go down from a bodyshot, the ref ruled it a slip, but Sykes appeared to refuse to get to his feet and the ref had to help him up. Between the third and fourth rounds, Sykes told his corner that he "couldn't do it."
Sykes came out for the fourth, Povetkin came out firing punches to send Sykes down. He took the full count from the ref. The replay showed that Povetkin's didn't even land clean punches for Sykes to drop. The announcers felt Sykes was overwhelmed and looking for a way out.