Two of Russia’s top former titlists were in action in Moscow this weekend. Former WBA heavyweight titleholder Alexander Povetkin won a relatively low level contest against Ukrainian Andriy Rudenko and his empty record while recent former IBF junior welterweight titlist Eduard Troyanovsky stopped long time European level contender Michelle Di Rocco rather violently.
Alexander Povetkin (32-1, 23 KOs) looked fine, but not particularly great against Andriy Rudenko (31-3, 19 KOs). That may have been due to the first round in which Rudenko’s neck was injured either by a rabbit punch or sort of a headlock in the clinch. There was a long pause before the fight was decided that it would continue and it was clear that the Ukrainian was bothered by the injury. At times it seemed like Povetkin was coasting a bit in an effort to give the most satisfying fight that the circumstances would allow by not finishing his accidentally injured opponent.
Of course I would be remiss to not mention Povetkin’s performance enhancing drug history. Having tested positive twice before, the Russian’s team made sure he made it through clean this time. I am speculating here and could be completely wrong, but perhaps that history is telling as to why he did not seem particularly high energy here. I do think it was at least partly Rudenko’s injury, however, as once the twelfth round did come Povetkin suddenly found the energy to pursue a finish.
Povetkin won on shut out cards across the board and rightfully so.
As the co-feature, the Troyanovsky fight went about as they tend to go, Indongo fight aside. Eduard Troyanovsky (26-1, 23 KOs) just had too much power in the fight for Michelle Di Rocco (41-3-1, 18 KOs) to deal with. The Russian power puncher overwhelmed Di Rocco from the very first round, dropping him and hurting the Italian badly in the opening frame.
Di Rocco somewhat surprisingly survived and was game in both the second and third rounds, but another short right that he did not see dropped him again in the third. While that shot did not hurt him as much as the one in the opening stanza, a big right hand in the fourth certainly did. The fight should have been stopped then and there, but the referee allowed the too game for his own good former European titlist to continue. He was sleeping on the ropes shortly thereafter.
