Some recent reports had suggested that former WBA champion Povetkin had put in a formal complaint over Pabon’s leniency towards opponent Klitschko’s constant clinching, although promoter Vlad Hrunov said this was not the case when approached by WBN.
Klitschko, 37, was clearly guilty of holding and leaning on the younger and smaller Povetkin throughout the Moscow contest, which went unpunished until a point was deducted by Pabon in the eleventh round of what was a messy defence of his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO titles by the Ukrainian.
The pattern of the fight was severely hampered by Klitschko’s actions, but certainly wouldn’t have made any difference to the result of the bout and probably why Povetkin and Hrunov made the decision to respect the official’s actions.
34 year-old Povetkin was put on the canvas four times in the clash, two of which could have been argued as pushes as Klitschko cruised to a lengthy points win on all three judges’ scorecards at the Olympic Stadium.
