Dillian Whyte Dillian Whyte (; born 11 April 1988) is a Jamaican-British professional boxer who has formerly competed as a kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He held the World Boxing Council (WBC) interim heavyweight title twice between 2019 and 2022. A ...

vs.

Alexander Povetkin Alexander Vladimirovich Povetkin (; born 2 September 1979) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2021. He held the World Boxing Association (WBA) ( Regular version) heavyweight title from 2011 to 2013; the World Boxing ...

was a

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

professional boxing Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

match contested between the defending WBC interim champion

and former WBA (regular) titleholder

, with Whyte's WBC interim title on the line.

Background

The event was originally scheduled to take place on 2 May 2020 at the

Manchester Arena Manchester Arena (currently known as AO Arena for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. Pr ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England, but was rescheduled twice due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

with the event being finalised for 22 August at the headquarters of

Matchroom Boxing Matchroom Sport is a UK-based sporting event promotions company founded by Barry Hearn and run by him and his son Eddie Hearn. It first came to attention in the sports of snooker and boxing and is also involved in pool, bowling, golf, fishin ...

Brentwood, Essex Brentwood is a town in Essex, England, in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt 20 miles (30 km) north-east of Charing Cross and close to the M25 motorway. The population of the built-up area was 55,340 in 2021. Brentwood is a t ...

The fight

Povetkin defeated Whyte via fifth-round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

, having been down twice himself in the fourth and well down on all the scorecards.

Aftermath

The two would have a rematch the following March.

Fight card

Broadcasters

The fight was televised live in the United Kingdom and Ireland on PPV's Sky Sports Box Office, as well as in Russia on Ren TV (FTA) and A1 TV (via Amediateka) - the coverage is not available in UK, IRL, CAN, and selected countries.

References