His new name is ‘PovetKing’ – Alexander Povetkin has reignited his boxing career at nearly 41 years of age with a dramatic KO victory over Dillian Whyte early in the 5th.
In the much-anticipated finale of the Matchroom Fight Camp shows, Dillian Whyte yet again saw himself putting his WBC mandatory spot on the line against an ageing, but, extremely experienced Alexander Povetkin when he didn’t necessarily need to, but, unfortunately for Whyte it didn’t go to plan this time.
Dillian Whyte appeared to be in control of the fight in the first 4 rounds and even knocked Povetkin down twice in those early rounds showing his brutal and imposing power but did he appear to be too laid back and allow Povetkin too much room to breathe?
It was refreshing to see Whyte actually box and think about what he’s going to do next, he gave the impression that he knew he was in control and he was in no rush to put the pressure on Povetkin, but, Povetkin had other ideas by pulling an impressive uppercut from his wast line after weaving through a snappy combination that he had clearly practised over and over again in his camp for this fight, and, well… this is the Heavyweights. it was lights out for Whyte instantly as the referee waved off the fight straight away.
ALEXANDER POVETKIN KNOCKS OUT DILLIAN WHYTE
The night had started off very successfully for Dillian, as he saw one of his own fighters, Alen ‘The Savage’ Babic, completely dominated and devoured a very confident and experienced Shawndell Winters by ending the fight comfortably in the 2nd round, but we don’t think Whyte had envisaged that the night would end just how it did for him.
In the post-fight interview with Whyte’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, he made it clear that Whyte will no doubt be looking to take an immediate rematch against the Russian, Povetkin, to reclaim his WBC number 1 spot and try to get himself back into a position where he can fight for a world title.
For the Dillian Whyte fans all over the world this night will be an extremely bitter pill to swallow as Dillian had been waiting over 1,000 days as rank number 1 challenger with the WBC to get his shot at the WBC World Heavyweight title and now all that waiting has amounted to nothing as the clock will now completely reset even if he does fight Povetkin immediately and claw back his rank 1 position.
Fellow stablemate and career nemesis, Anthony Joshua, was sitting at ringside watching the fight unfold, and like many of us was most likely expecting Whyte to come through the fight with Povetkin just as he did in 2018. Anthony Joshua himself suffered a shocking defeat just last year against the likely Mexican Heavyweight, Andy Ruiz Jr, but then immediately after triggered his right to a rematch where he managed to claim back his world titles and place himself back on top of the division.
Although Povetkin holds an extremely impressive resume inside the ring and has only ever lost to Wladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua, there were very few fans and professionals in the sport that would have expected this outcome from the Whyte and Povetkin fight, but, this happening has now definitely shaken up the Heavyweight division once again and thrown a completely different light on what may unfold over the next 12 months between the Heavyweight Elite!
In a post-fight interview with IFLTV, Eddie Hearn stated that straight after the fight Dillian Whyte said to him “make the rematch” and Eddie himself confirmed that Whyte will be taking a rematch with Povetkin this year to ” regain that mandatory position”
Do you think Dillian Whyte will be able to claw back his position within the division? Anthony Joshua seems to have, but time will tell. for now, Dillian will most likely need some time away from training and then get back to work on figuring out where he needs to improve.
Whyte v Povetkin 2 at this stage looks very likely.
