Alexander Povetkin's promoter Andrey Ryabinskiy has revealed that the expected rematch between his client and Britain's Dillian Whyte may still be a long way off from taking place.
Whyte would have cemented his status as interim WBC heavyweight champion and mandatory challenger to Tyson Fury, had he defeated Povetkin on the final night of Matchroom Boxing's Fight Camp series in August.
However despite dominating the first four rounds and scoring two knockdowns, Whyte was caught cold by a tremendous uppercut in Round 5 for the upset KO, forcing him to invoke his rematch clause in order to salvage his world title aspirations.
The return bout was scheduled for Nov. 21, but was called off when Povetkin tested positive for COVID-19. Chief support bout Conor Benn vs. Sebastian Formella was elevated to main event in its place.
Promoter Eddie Hearn has mentioned the dates Jan. 23 and Jan. 30 when discussing his attempts to run it back, but in a statement on social media Ryabinskiy claimed it may take Povetkin longer to fully recover and return to peak fitness in preparation for the fight.
"Sasha [Povetkin's nickname] is feeling well and is slowly entering the training process, but not at full capacity," explained Ryabinskiy.
"Soon we will have to decide whether the fight with Whyte will take place at the end of January, the question is whether we will meet these deadlines with the preparation."
Whyte had raised doubts over whether or not Povetkin really had coronavirus in a previous interview, telling Sky Sports: "I personally don't think he's got COVID.
"I think he just needed more time to get ready, because he took a lot of damage in the first fight. After the first fight, he took a lot of time off. Even though I got stopped, I went straight back to training and I got straight back on it."
Ryabinskiy's response to this was: "The facts are simple — Sasha got coronavirus, and we were forced to postpone the fight.
"This can happen to any athlete. Sasha was in the hospital, we have all the documents at hand.
"If Eddie Hearn has any question of this kind, I am ready to submit all these documents."
When Whyte and Povetkin fought the first time, Fury looked set to complete his scheduled trilogy against Deontay Wilder before the end of the year.
However between the struggle to be permitted a suitable number of ticket-paying fans and other issues, Fury-Wilder III fell apart and the undefeated Brit looks set to return to the ring early next year instead.
It does raise the possibility that, had Whyte avoided the shock defeat to Povetkin and not required a rematch to get back into contention, he might have been the first choice to fight Fury this month instead of Wilder as the mandatory challenger.
Instead, Whyte's 2021 is entirely uncertain. Not only will he be waiting for a definite date to rematch Povetkin, but Fury is likely to put pen to paper on a two-fight agreement with WBA, WBO and IBF champion Anthony Joshua if he gets past Kubrat Pulev on Dec. 12.