By Przemek Garczarczyk at ringside

WBA #2, WBO #6, IBF #12 rated former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (33-1, 23 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision over WBO #1, WBA #3, IBF #4 Christian Hammer (22-5, 12 K0s) on Friday night at the DIVS, Ekaterinburg, Russia. Former Olympic gold medalist Povetkin pressed the action and generally got the best of it. Hammer was deducted a point for holding in round seven. In the end, scores were 120-107, 120-108, 118-108.

The bout was for the WBO International and WBA Intercontinental belts, plus Povetkin promoter Andrey Ryabinskiy stated, “I have confirmation from WBA that Anthony Joshua must fight the Povetkin-Hammer winner.”