Alexander Povetkin: The adrenaline junkie with no fear of Anthony Joshua

'Saturday does not concern me at all. Big guys always have their weaknesses'

When Alexander Povetkin is between training camps it is not unusual for him to hitch a ride in a helicopter and throw himself out of it.

The Russian visitor, the latest on an ever-lengthening list of men attempting to topple Anthony Joshua, describes himself as just an ‘ordinary guy’ with a love of adrenaline.

That might explain why he has remained ice-cold during this fight week, seemingly unimpressed by Wembley or the idea of fighting in the middle of it before 80,000 spectators on Saturday night.

Standing at a trim 6ft 2in, Povetkin is not always the most imposing figure in the room but his record is formidable. An Olympic gold medalist with a single defeat to a prime Wladimir Klitschko against him means there is an argument that this is Joshua’s biggest test yet.

Povetkin, or ‘Sasha’ to his friends, was born and raised in the city of Kursk, west Russia, made infamous by the largest tank battle in history, which raged on its outskirts during July and August of 1943.

He was born 36 years later into a stable family and describes his upbringing as good. There was no painful back-story just simply a need to protect himself ‘everywhere’.

“My father always told me a man must always be able to stand up for himself,” he says. “Sometimes I would get into fights but to be honest I was only a skinny kid. I was getting into trouble everywhere, school, the streets, everywhere.”

At first it was kickboxing that consumed him but it was that grounding, which was punctuated by a string of titles, which allowed him to make a seamless switch to boxing in his early 20s.

Like Joshua, he claimed Olympic gold before taking a year off from the sport entirely.

“After the Olympics, I didn’t want to box anymore,” he adds. “We travelled around, opening gyms for combat sports, MMA and kickboxing. I was not planning to be a professional fighter.

“But a year later I realised I missed it and I started boxing again as a pro. I attended some amateur competitions and I just felt the need to box again. Maybe it was the smell of the leather.”

The Russian said he is feeling calm and collected ahead of Saturday’s fight (Getty ) (Getty)

He swiftly emerged as one the most promising and dangerous heavyweights of the Klitschko era and was indeed hailed as a man with the potential to derail the all-conquering Ukrainian brothers.

An extraordinary purse bid of $23m ensured his eventual meeting with them took place in Russia when the younger Klitschko, Wladimir, defended his WBO, IBF and WBA titles against him at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Moscow.

Povetkin, however, was floored four times en route to a lopsided points defeat – incidentally on the very same night that Joshua made his professional debut in October of 2013.

In another twist of fate, it is the very same trio of world belts on the line this Saturday, and he will once again have the backing of his nation when he steps through the ropes.

He said: “Our president Vladimir Putin loves sport. He pays a lot of attention to sport. He is an athlete himself, he’s always training and I’m sure he is going to watch the fight.

“I know he’s going to be rooting for me on Saturday night. After the Olympics, the team visited the Kremlin and he congratulated all of us.”

Povetkin’s reputation took a beating over the course of seven months in 2016, when he failed two different drugs test for two different substances. First he tested positive for the banned performance-enhancing drug meldonium in May and then traces of ostarine were found in his system in December.

Povetkin inflicted a devastating knockout defeat on David Price earlier this year (Reuters)

Despite protesting his innocence, Povetkin was fined £200,000 and was handed an indefinite ban by the WBC, which was eventually lifted by the governing body in late 2017.

He has since beaten Christian Hammer and Liverpool’s David Price to instal himself as the mandatory challenger to Joshua’s WBA belt. Now, five years on from his last defeat, and at the age of 39 it has been suggested that Povetkin is a fully paid-up member at the last-chance saloon.

“To be honest, I don’t think about it like that,” he counters. “I don’t feel under any pressure in that regard.

“Actually perhaps there is more pressure to win on Joshua’s shoulders. There’s a saying in Russia, you feel like the walls are closing in.

“Psychologically I’m very stable. I don’t feel under any pressure. I’m very calm.

“There was a lot more pressure on me for the Klitschko fight because I was at home. I felt a lot more pressure then than I do now. The walls were closing in on me.

“After losing to Klitschko I changed my team, I changed my attitude, I changed my training camp.

Povetkin’s only professional defeat came at the hands of Wladimir Klitschko (Bongarts/Getty Images)

“I worked hard on my strengths and endurance because in the Klitschko fight, by the end of it, I was exhausted.”

Now the self-confessed adrenaline junkie believes victory over Joshua will draw a line under what he describes simply as the ‘doping scandal’. He also hopes it will inspire Russia’s next generation of boxers.

“We do a lot of work for the young people of Russia,” he says. “Trying to get them away from drugs and into sport

“We want to make gentlemen and intelligent people out of them. That’s a hobby of mine.

“Another is that I like to spend time with my friends and family but I will let you into a little secret. Sometimes we do parachute jumps from planes and helicopters.

“It’s a different kind of rush, a different type of adrenaline to boxing.

“Saturday does not concern me at all. Big guys always have their weaknesses.”