Team Klitschko: Povetkin is Not in Wladimir's Plans

By Ruslan Chikov

Bernd Boente, the manager of WBO/WBA/IBO/IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, says undefeated Alexander Povetkin is not in the immediate future plans of his boxer. A recent article on BoxingScene.com disclosed Povetkin's goal of getting a title shot in the near future. The Olympic champion is ranked at #2 by the World Boxing Association, which is the title Wladimir captured last Saturday in Hamburg with a dominating decision over David Haye in Hamburg.

As noted in our previous article, Povetkin had two scheduled fights with Wladimr, and withdrew from both opportunities. The first time around, after winning the IBF's tournament to become the mandatory challenger, Povetkin withdrew with a training related injury.

But last year, after a mandatory purse bid, Povetkin refused to final his portion of the deal and he was ousted from the fight by the IBF. Povetkin's team said he was ill, but the boxer's trainer would later disclose that his fighter simply wasn't ready for such a bout.

"Twice we were scheduled to fight Povetkin, and we wanted to fight him. But he didn't even show up to the press conference [in 2010] because he was scared. Later, even his own trainer Teddy Atlas said that Povetkin was healthy, but he just didn't want him to fight with Klitschko," Boente told Alexander Pavlov.