NOTHING TO LOSE
Street fighter Povetkin piles the pressure on Joshua
ALEXAnDEr Povetkin peered up at the towering ramparts of Wembley Stadium and was asked what extra pressures such a huge stage will apply to the stress of his world heavyweight title fight against Anthony Joshua here on Saturday night.
The challenger’s reply: ‘We have a saying in russia: you feel the walls closing in.’
not on him, he hastened to add. ‘Joshua will suffer that burden more than me. As the champion at home he has more responsibility to win on his shoulders.
‘ Psychologically I am very stable. I am calm. I am impressed with Wembley. If I beat Joshua and we have a rematch next spring I will be happy to come back and box him again here.’
Povetkin admitted russia’s expectations bore down on him the night he fought Wladimir Klitschko in Moscow and suffered the only defeat of his career.
He said: ‘While it was true that I had not trained hard enough and was not in the good condition I am now, the pressures were part of why I was absolutely exhausted at the end of that fight.’
Povetkin claimed that although this opportunity to be a world heavyweight champion a second time comes to him late, at 39, he is the fittest and strongest of his life. There is some logic to that argument in that he retired immediately after winning his olympic gold medal in 2004 and was not overly serious when he returned to the ring.
‘I did not want to box any more,’ he recalls. ‘I had only started boxing because my father told me that a man had to stand up for himself. I was thin as a boy and had my street fights but I would not be bullied.’
Those scraps took place in Kursk, where russia defeated Hitler’s Second World War Panzer divisions in the biggest tank battle in military history.
Patriotism burns strong in his home city and he said: ‘My ambition was always to win the olympics for my country. Then I just went around russia opening gyms for combat sports for youngsters, giving something back to the community. But then I went to an amateur tournament and I realised how much I missed boxing.’
He resumed knocking out professional heavyweights, the way he had the amateurs, en route to the WBA title. Povetkin, who had a brief suspension for two failed drugs tests, now challenges for Joshua’s WBA, IBF, WBo and IBo straps but those lapses reopened the debate about substance abuse in sport, especially russian sport. ‘The drugs issue has been dealt with,’ he said.
‘I have been exonerated and I still work with young people inspiring them to box to get them away from drugs.’
He played down Britain’s political stand-off with russia, saying: ‘I believe sport should be kept apart from politics. I don’t expect special hostility at Wembley.’ At 6ft 2in, Povetkin is four inches shorter than Joshua, but said: ‘I never worry about the size of other heavyweights. The biggest men still have their weaknesses.’