One month after "Sasha" promoter Andrey Ryabinski won the purse bid, Alexander Povetkin and Bermane Stiverne are officially set to do battle on December 17th in Povetkin’s native Russia for the interim WBC heavyweight title.
Neither man has fought since last November, when Povetkin (30-1, 22 KO) ravaged Mariusz Wach and Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KO) got off the canvas to take a decision over Derric Rossy. Povetkin missed out on a shot at Deontay Wilder earlier this year after testing positive for meldonium, but avoided a suspension due to the small amount of the recently-banned drug.
Stiverne entered the Rossy fight at his heaviest since 2009 and struggled more than is reasonable against a man who’s currently 2-7 in his last nine. Povetkin is currently sitting between -1100 and -1300 with the bookies, which sounds about right.
It remains to be seen what kind of supporting cast this card will have, as Russian standouts Eduard Troyanovsky, Dmitry Kudryashov, Denis Lebedev, and Rakhim Chakhkiev are all booked on World of Boxing’s December 3rd event. We’ll let you know what hangers-on this picks up.