According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, the proposed September 11th showdown between world Heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin is off due Povetkin missing a press conference earlier in the week.
The IBF mandated that Klitschko start negotiation with the next highest available contender Samuel Peter and all indications is that fight will be made for the same date.
K2 Promotions, Klitschko’s company, complained to the IBF about Povetkin missing the news conference because it had won the promotional rights to the fight with a purse bid of $8.313 million. With so much money on the line, K2 needed him there to promote the fight, which was to take place at the 55,000-seat Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt.
The IBF sided with Klitschko (54-3, 48 KOs) and ordered him to begin negotiating with the next available contender, Peter. The former titleholder knocked Klitschko down three times but lost a decision in their 2005 title elimination fight in Atlantic City, N.J.
“The IBF ruled that Povetkin had violated its rules by failing to come to the press conference this past Monday,” John Hornewer, Klitschko’s attorney, told ESPN.com. “The IBF had told him he needed to attend based on his duty to provide reasonable promotional support to fight and he didn’t get on the plane. Then the next day, he went to the doctor to get a doctor’s excuse. The IBF has instructed us to begin negotiating with the next available contender.”
“They were told beforehand that they had to be at the press conference to help promote the event,” Said Bernd Boente, manager of Klitschko. “That was their obligation after the purse bid.”
One of the theories behind the pullout was that Povetkin’s trainer Teddy Atlas felt his pupil wasn’t ready for the challenge.
“I think he deseves the chance to develop,” Atlas said. “I’m in the middle of training this kid, which is obviously an important time in his life for the future of his career. I’m doing my job. I am not moved by the title fight and what the biggest fight is out there. My job is to do the best job I can for the fighter and to make sure he is the best he can be when he’s in a situtation to fight, whether to fight Klitschko, Samuel Peter, [Tomasz] Adamek or Joe Shmoe.
“I am not controlled or dictated by anything other than that. I told him from the beginning I wanted more time. I was never really for the fight right now. Let me have more time with him. Does the mandatory dictate when he fights or do the circumstances of him having the best chance to win the fight?”
“I get 10 percent of that, but I decided the most important thing was to do what was the best for the fighter,” Atlas said. “My judgment was is the fighter ready for this moment? My opinion was more time would be good.”
“Wladimir felt honestly that Povetkin would not show up because Teddy Atlas kept telling people he didn’t think he was ready for the fight, so Wladimir was concerned,” Boente said. “He wants to fight Sept. 11 and we appreciate the IBF making a decision quickly so we can save the date, because if Wladimir wins in September, he wants to come back and fight for a third time this year in December.”
“Wladimir and myself think the Peter fight is a great matchup,” Boente said. “It’s a rematch of a good fight. There are a lot of people more interested in that fight than the Povetkin fight.”
“The IBF has done the right thing and we are negotiating a deal. I expect it to go a lot smoother and a lot quicker than the previous negotiation Klitschko had with Povetkin because we actually want the fight,” Said Ivalo Gotzev, who manages Peter. “This is a very big fight for the German population and we’re going to make it a very big fight for the heavyweight fans around the world.
“You have an exciting matchup that has already proven to be a competitive one. I still get people asking me how Samuel lost when he knocked the guy down three times. We are going to finish what we started in September 2005. This year, it will be a September to remember.”
