Alexander Povetkin’s Stunning Uppercut Stops Dillian Whyte
Alexander Povetkin (36-2-1, 25 KO) rolled back the clock tonight (Sat. August 22) with a vintage KO victory over Dillian Whyte (27-2, 2KO) to bring Matchroom’s Fight Camp series to an end.
The veteran Russian landed a perfectly timed uppercut at the start of the fifth to send Whyte into dreamland, temporarily and possibly permanently putting the British fighter’s ambitions of a world title shot on hold.
Whyte started strong, patiently looking to break Povetkin down and appeared a step ahead of his 40-year-old opponent. Everything seemed to be going according to plan when he sent Povetkin to the canvas twice in the fourth.
However, Povetkin had no intention of going gently into the good night, and with just thirty seconds gone in the fifth landed one of the most memorable punches of his career.
” I was watching his fights and taking into account that he was missing uppercuts from the left and from the right. So in my training, I was training this combination,” Povetkin said in his post-fight interview.
After the fight, a shell-shocked Eddie Hearn promised that Whyte would exercise his rematch clause. The two men will square off once again before the end of the year.
” It is a very dangerous fight now. Obviously back to back defeats for Dillian Whyte throws a different shade on it. I know he will come back from this,” Hearn said.
In the co-main event, Ireland’s Katie Taylor overcome a committed Delfine Persoon, beating the Belgian via unanimous decision (98-93, 96-94 and 96-94).
It was hardly one-way traffic for Taylor, who retained her WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO lightweight titles, with Persoon walking forward with reckless abandon throughout the ten rounds. Taylor used her superior footwork and technique to land enough clean shots over the course of the fight to get the win, but she will be feeling sore when she wakes up tomorrow morning.
Persoon’s size and aggression caused Taylor issues, especially in the second half of the contest. The Belgian’s best moments came when she forced Taylor to stand and trade with her, which allowed her to make life uncomfortable for the defending champion as no matter what Taylor threw, Persoon just kept coming back. Unlike their first meeting there will no controversy over the result. Persoon acknowledged Taylor as the better boxer on the night, following the bout’s conclusion.
Taylor will now regroup and start to prepare to take on Chicago’s Jessica Jessica McCaskill, who last week defeated Cecilia Brækhus to become the undisputed women’s welterweight champion.
Full Results:
- Heavyweight: Alexander Povetkin def. Dillian Whyte via RD5 KO
- Lightweight: Katie Taylor def. Delfine Persoon via Unanimous Decision
- Welterweight: Chris Kongo def. Luther Clay via RD9 TKO
- Heavyweight: Alen Babic def. Shawndell Winters via RD2 TKO
- Super Middleweight: Jack Cullen vs. Zak Chelli – Split Decision Draw
