Bio

Alexander Vladimirovich "Sasha" Povetkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Пове́ткин; born 2 September 1979) is a Russian professional boxer. He held the WBA (Regular) heavyweight title from 2011 to 2013, the WBC interim heavyweight title from 2020 to March 2021, and has challenged twice for the unified heavyweight championship. As an amateur, Povetkin won gold medals in the super-heavyweight division at the 2002 and 2004 European Championships, 2003 World Championships, and 2004 Olympics. After turning professional in 2005, he defeated Ruslan Chagaev to claim the vacant WBA (Regular) title in 2011. He challenged unified champion Wladimir Klitschko for the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, The Ring, and lineal titles in 2013, suffering his first professional career loss by unanimous decision. Povetkin fought unified champion Anthony Joshua for the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles in 2018, and suffered a seventh-round technical knockout loss, his only defeat by stoppage up to that date. As of October 2020, Povetkin was ranked as the world's fourth best active heavyweight by The Ring magazine and BoxRec, and fifth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, as well as the world's eighth best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec. Povetkin has been ranked by BoxRec as the world's top ten heavyweight since 2006, and as top five heavyweight since 2007; he was ranked as the No.2 heavyweight in the world from 2011 to 2013. His victorious fights against Ruslan Chagaev, Marco Huck and Dillian Whyte received a 5-Star rating from BoxRec.