Alexander Povetkin and members of his team are rejecting some of the statements being made by Dillian Whyte. 

According to Whyte, the Russian boxer was nearly pulled out by his team when he came back to the corner upon the conclusion of the fourth round of their first encounter.

During fourth round of that fight, which took place in August of 2020, Povetkin was dropped twice and appeared be on the verge of a knockout loss.

But the 41-year-old boxer came out in the fifth to score a sensational one-punch knockout of Whyte.

“I lost to him but he was done – they were saying ‘we are pulling you out at the end of this round'," Whyte told Sky Sports.

“They know him better than me. It’s hard for me to say what they were thinking, but don’t worry, I’ll try and help their hand this time. I definitely want to knock him out, one hundred percent.”

Povetkin denies that any such conversation took place in the corner.

“Those people who are saying that? They have a problem with [the Russian language],” Povetkin told Sky Sports. “There was no such conversation in the corner.

“The people who know me know that I fight until the end. You can’t throw the towel in until the referee stops the fight.”

Povetkin's promoter, Andrey Ryabinsky, backed the position of his boxer - that at no point was the corner going to stop the fight.

"It's nothing more than just rumors," Ryabinskiy said.

"The fourth round wasn't easy, it made us worry, but Alexander felt good, he was not particularly shocked. I think there were usual questions after the knockdown: "Are you all right? Shall we continue the fight?"

Whyte and Povetkin will collide for a second time on Saturday night in Gibraltar, with the WBC's interim-heavyweight title at stake.