Heavyweight News: Povetkin-Rahman Headed To Germany July 14th, SKY Reject Idea Of Vitali-Haye Pay-Per-View Clash

By James Slater – Two reasonably big heavyweight news stories came out today: “regular” WBA heavyweight champ Alexander Povetkin’s mandatory defence against former king Hasim Rahman is looking like going down on July 14th in Germany, and SKY Sports turned down the suggestion of a Vitali Klitschko-David Haye Pay-Per-View fight in the summer.

Dan Rafael of ESPN.com has written that the “working date” for Povetkin-Rahman is July 14th, the exact venue in Germany to be announced.. A reasonably intriguing fight when you dismiss it totally as anything approaching a world title bout, Povetkin-Rahman could go either way. If “Rock” – who has been quiet of late, hopefully because he’s locked himself away and is training as hard as can be for his last big fight – comes in in shape, the action might be exciting for at least a few rounds. For as long as he’s able to keep throwing big right hands, Rahman will be dangerous.

Povetkin certainly wasn’t all that hard to hit when he fought cruiserweight champ Marco Huck in that thrilling battle a few weeks back. If Rahman nails his man he just might hit the jackpot.

As for the Vitali-Haye story, Gareth A Davies of The Telegraph has written how “in recent days Bernd Boente approached SKY executives to discuss the prospect of Haye fighting Vitali Klitschko under Pay-Per-View terms with the broadcaster, some time in the summer.”

Reportedly, SKY’s head of sport, Barney Francis, was “luke-warm about the event going ahead as a pay-per-view entity.”

But why is Boente, manager of the Klitschkos, even trying to get this fight made? Didn’t he say that Vitali will fight someone other than Haye in his next fight? Maybe a Vitali-Haye fight isn’t quite dead in the water after all. Of course, Haye would have to receive permission from the WBC to challenge for the green belt (Don Jose said recently that his organisation will not “recognise” Haye) – to say nothing of Haye’s lack of a licence to box at present.

There is of course, also talk of Haye fighting Dereck Chisora. If “Del Boy” can win his appeal and get his own licence back, promoter Frank Warren feels a fight between the two Brits will be “a natural.”

Davies’ article added that “The Telegraph understands that Haye was offered the (Chisora) fight by Warren and has expressed interest in taking it, but there are moves behind the scenes with the Klitschko camp pushing ahead to make Klitschko-Haye this summer.”

Why do I feel “The Hayemaker,” an officially retired fighter, will engage in at least one more massive fight before he’s done!?