Alexander Povetkin knocked out Dillian Whyte in the fifth round of their heavyweight fight at Matchroom HQ on Saturday night.
The 40-year-old Russian floored Whyte with a devastating uppercut which inflicted just the second defeat of his career on the British boxer.
That punch completed a remarkable turnaround in the fight. In the previous round, Whyte had twice put Povetkin on the canvas and it look as though the result was only going one way.
WHAT AN UPSET! Alexander Povetkin wipes out Dillian Whyte after being dropped earlier in the fight 😳 #WhytePovetkin pic.twitter.com/onAbi6JRoK
— SportingMatrix (@Sporting_Matrix) August 22, 2020
"I didn’t feel I would finish the fight like this but I was pretty confident in the fourth round," Povetkin told Sky Sports.
"I went down twice but it was OK. It was not too much damage. I was watching his fights and I see that he was missing uppercuts from the left and from the right. All my training I trained for those shots and it was definitely one of the best punches of my career."
Whyte had been the WBC's number one heavyweight contender for the past two years. A victory on Saturday would have set him up for a bout against the winner of Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder's trilogy fight.
Eddie Hearn, Whyte's promoter, said there is a rematch clause which he will be exercising before the end of the year.
