Roach: With Me, Povetkin Would've Beaten Klitschko!

By Luke Furman

Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach believes that he has the perfect strategy to defeat heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko (62-3, 52 KOs). Last year, Klitschko was challenged by mandatory contender Alexander Povetkin (27-1, 19 KOs) in a battle of Olympic gold medal winners.

Roach received a good offer to head over to Moscow to train Povetkin for the fight, but he passed on the opportunity because he was hired by Miguel Cotto to train him for a fight with Delvin Rodriguez in Florida - and both fights took place on the same October date.

In a fight filled with a lot of holding and fouls, Povetkin was dropped numerous times and lost a wide twelve round decision to Wladimir.

"I got an offer to train Povetkin for the fight, but I was too busy to fly to Russia. But if I had worked with Alexander, he would have beaten Klitschko. I'm am a hundred percent sure of that. No one explained to him what to do in the ring," Roach said.

Povetkin will, return to the ring on October 24. His rival in the Russian capital is Carlos Takama (30-1-1, 23 KOs).

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.