Alexander Povetkin

In July 2013, Povetkin married Yevgenia Merkulova in the Czech Republic. He has a daughter, Arina, with his ex-wife, Irina.

His brother, Vladimir Povetkin, is also a light heavyweight professional.

Povetkin was born on 2 September, 1979 in Kursk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. From a young age, Povetkin was into learning various forms of martial arts, and remained one of the best athletes throughout his schooldays.

It all began when his father took Alexander to a boxing gym. He started learning boxing, and also tried his hands on wushu, karate, hand-to-hand fighting, kickboxing etc.

Povertkin started as a kickboxing professional, and ended up winning ‘World Junior Championship’ (1997), ‘Baltic Countries Cup’ (1998), ‘W.A.K.O World Championships’ (1999) etc.

After he left kickboxing for a career in professional boxing, he started winning a lot of tournaments as an amateur. The biggest feat of his amateur career is the gold medal win at the 2004 Athens Olympics in super-heavyweight.

After winning the Olympic gold, he took a year off to meet several people and promoters from professional boxing to make a decision about turning pro. He finally made his professional debut on 11 June 2005 in Germany against Muhammad Ali Durmaz, and defeated him via TKO (second round).

In 2005, he faced four boxers, and defeated all of them. He defeated Cerrone Fox via fourth round KO, John Castle via first-round knockout, Stephane Tessier via unanimous decision and American Willie Chapman through a knockout.

In 2006, he stated very clearly that he wanted to have five fights. He began with second round TKO win over 1992 Olympic bronze medal winner Richard Bango of Nigeria.

His biggest fight of the career came in April 2006, when he faced veteran Friday Ahunanya whom he defeated via unanimous decision. Next, he defeated Ecuador’s Livin Castillo, which was followed by a win via fifth-round TKO against another tough challenger, Ed Mahone of the USA.

In his last fight of 2006, he faced ex-Cruiserweight champion Imamu Mayfield in Russia. Povetkin was able to defeat him, taking his score to 10 wins in two years.

In 2007, he faced experienced boxers like David Bostice, Patrice L’Heureux, Larry Donald—who had defeated boxers like Evander Holyfield, but he managed to defeat them all. He had an opportunity to face the ‘IBF (WBO) Champion Wladimir Klitschko through a four-person tournament to challenge the champion.