By Alexey Sukachev

Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland - Alexander Povetkin (23-0, 16KOs) retained his WBA "regular" heavyweight title for the first time with an eight round knockout over veteran Cedric Boswell (35-2, 26KOs). Boswell was rocked by a few punches in the sixth but survived. Boswell took more punishment in the seventh. He was punished in the eight with a big combination of punches that dropped him for the full count. Boswell made it up for a moment, after the count was over, and went down again.

Both fighters were rather measured at the start and boxed from the outside but the American put his feet on gas and moved backwards. Boswell waited too long for Povetkin to get off with his punches and rarely countered him. Instead, Boswell was more willing to stay out of the danger zone. When he tried to trade punches with Povetkin, he was always on the losing end. The Russian champions took the middle rounds by being the more consistent of the two.

In the fifth, Povetkin, 32, appeared to take a round off, but Boswell, however, didn't do anything to deliver any heat to the Russian and the champion slowly regained his full composure. The American, on the other hand, began to show the wear and tear of taking Povetkin's punches, especially the champion's crisp left hooks. Boswell's legs were starting to wobble a bit, and he was rather rocky until the end of round seven.

Sensing Boswell was ready to go, Povetkin engaged and threw punches with fascinating determination in the eight. Finally, with several seconds remaining, Povetkin cornered Boswell and landed a violent barrage of blows and finished with a huge right hand to the jaw. Boswell went down hard and was counted out by Italian referee Guiseppe Quartarone. Official time of stoppage was 2:58 of the eighth.