Alexander Povetkin made short work of Hasim Rahman on Saturday night in Hamburg, Germany, in front of about 4,000 fight fans for a bout which was televised in the United States on Epix. The 33-year-old was in the first fight under the tutelage of his new coach, Kostya Tszyu, and appeared in top form while dispatching of a completely ridiculous opponent in Hasim Rahman, winning by second round TKO.
The first seconds of the championship fights proceeded still pretty balanced. But then it quickly became apparent that Povetkin was the better man in the ring. Geez, who woulda thought?
Even in the first of the challenger crumpled the first time after a crisp straight right, but was able to stay on his feet.
The defending Fake WBA champion took the initiative in the second round once again. Precise combinations punctuated with big straight rights drove Rahman to the ropes. There, Povetkin poured on the punishment as referee Gustavo Padilla looked on. After a tremendous left hook, the referee stopped the fight after one minute and 46 seconds of the second round.
Povetkin improves to 25-0 with 17 KOS, saying, “I have learned a lot with Kostya Tszyu. We have worked a lot on my endurance and technique. In retrospect, I would say that I needed the battle against Marco Huck this past February as a kind of wake-up call in order to emerge stronger.”
Promoter Kalle Sauerland noted that Wladimir Klitschko is defending against Mariusz Wach next, and then will have a mandatory coming against Povetkin. For his part, Povetkin now says, “I would like to box against Wladimir.” Of course, we all know that Povetkin and his team have turned down this opportunity before, which in part helped him to acquire the entirely bogus WBA strap he now holds. So we’ll see how it turns out.
