In April 2013, prior to a big showdown with Wladimir Klitschko, Povetkin chose to fight Andrzej Wawrzyk (27-0, 13 KOs) on 17 May, in a voluntary title defence. Team Sauerland revealed as part of the deal, if Wawrzyk pulled an upset, he would sign with Sauerland Event on a 3-fight deal. The fight took place at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow. Like most of Povetkin's fights, the first round had very little action. Povetkin dropped Wawrzyk in round 2 with a right hand. Wawrzyk beat the count and barely made it to the end of the round. In round 3, Povetkin carried on landing big punches, dropping Wawrzyk a further two times before the referee intervened to stop the fight. In the post-fight, Povetkin said, "I just wanted to show some offensive arsenal. I trained for a longer fight but, well, it has ended pretty fast. We didn't plan to win by a TKO."