By Luke Furman

WBA "regular" heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (25-0, 17KOs) has a tough test in front of him on May 17, when he faces unbeaten Andrzej Wawrzyk (27-0, 13KOs) at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia. If Povetkin wins, that will be the final step in moving forward with a planned fight against unified champion Wladimir Klitschko in the fall.

But not everyone is sure of a Povetkin victory, Wladimir, and his manager Bernd Boente, see Wawrzyk as a very tough opponent and they even believe the Polish contender could pull off the upset.

Russian promoter Vladimir Hryunov bid $23 million for the rights to stage Wladimir-Povetkin. More than $17 million of that money will go to Wladimir, and they hope Povetkin wins his fight.

"That is not an easy job for Povetkin and Wladimir thinks Povetkin could lose that fight. If Povetkin loses then there is no Klitschko-Povetkin fight, then there is maybe a Klitschko-Wawrzyk fight. Sure, we hope Povetkin wins the fight, it is an interesting matchup between two Olympic gold medal winners and it should have been staged [in Germany] in 2008 but as I said before we hope that every goes the right way," Boente said.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.