By Luke Furman

Olympic gold medal winner Alexander Povetkin had an operation on the elbows of both hands after the September fight with IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, and in January he will be able to start training, according to the boxer's manager Dmitry Ivanov.

On September 22, Povetkin took center stage at Wembley Stadium in London suffered a knockout in the seventh round to Joshua, who was making a mandatory defense after the World Boxing Association ordered him to face Povetkin.

For the 39-year-old Russian boxer, this defeat was the second in the professional ranks and the first where he got stopped inside the distance. Also on the asset ledger of the 2004 Olympic champion is 34 victories. His other defeat came in 2013, when he lost a twelve round unanimous decision to then world champion Wladimir Klitschko.

In mid-October, it became known that Povetkin will continue his career and stage another one or two fights before retirement, and one of them may be held in April in the UK.

The next bout is possibly going to land as a supporting fight to Joshua's next defense, which takes place on April 13th at Wembley Stadium. Povetkin fought in a supporting role on Joshua's card earlier this year, when he knocked out David Price.

“Alexander was successfully operated on the elbows of both arms in November. He is in the process of recovery, he is already doing the exercises. And in the middle of January we will begin special physical training: bags, legs, we can work in pairs. His fight is planned for April, right now the negotiations are underway. Apparently, Alexander will have his next fight the Joshua card," Ivanov stated to Vasily Konov.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.