By Ruslan Chikov and Alexander Pavlov

Former WBA world heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev has urged his promotional teammate, WBA "regular" Alexander Povetkin (23-1, 16KOs) to go for a knockout against WBO cruiserweight champion Marco Huck (34-1, 25KOs) on February 25th at the Porsche-Arena in Stuttgart, Germany. Valuev, Povetkin and Huck are all promoted by Sauerland Event, but Valuev feels that their mutual promoter is hoping Huck wins because of his popularity in Germany.

"Marco is fast enough [to win], but a dirty fighter.  He doesn't hit as hard as Povetkin. Naturally, he is going to try to bother Alex with distance and use [movement]. Huck will will thus earn points from these tactics. This is at least gives him a chance. A different strategy will not bring him success. I do not rule out [Huck] winning the early rounds because he's fast and fresh. Surely he and his team looked at a few rounds from the fight between Povetkin and Chagaev and took notes.

"[Going for a decision] is not very profitable for Alex, because Huck is closer to the promoter. The promoter is likely going to be on the side of Huck, because of the German audience. We look back at the outcome of the fight between [Denis] Lebedev and Huck. A repeat of that is not desired."

Alexander Pavlov covers boxing for Sportbox.ru