Dillian Whyte has reached a level he has never reached before and his co-trainer Harold Knight believes the crowd will be surprised by his performance against Alexander Povetkin.

Why He will finally get his chance for revenge in Gibraltar on Saturday night when he faces Povetkin live on Sky Sports Box Office in the UK and on DAZN in over 200 countries, seven months after a devastating fifth-round defeat at Matchroom HQ.

The Briton, who was one win away from winning the WBC world title against Tyson Fury after more than 1,000 days of waiting, knocked down the experienced Russian twice in the fourth round before his hopes were dashed by a terrible uppercut in the fifth.

After two postponements due to “Sasha” testing positive for Covid-19 and a travel restriction that forced him to reschedule for March 6, “The Body Snatcher” could regain his interim WBC heavyweight title with a win and move closer to a world title shot.

The 32-year-old has joined Lennox Lewis’ former co-trainer Harold ‘Shadow’ Knight to work alongside head coach Xavier Miller, and the American claims the pair have learnt a lot from each other.

“We think pretty much the same way,” Knight said. proboxing-fans.com.

“Of course, Xavier did not have the same experience at the World Championships that I was fortunate to have, being under the guidance of great coaches and teachers.

“The tardy great Emanuel Steward, the tardy great John Davenport who was Lennox Lewis’ first professional coach, Pepe Correa who was Sugar Ray Leonard’s coach, so we more or less compliment each other because Xavier is a student of the game, he studies a lot.

“Once again, I learned some things from him and I’m sure he learned something from me, so we more or less work together and lend a hand each other, learning from each other.

I’ve been playing this game for a long time, but anyone who claims to know everything is a damn lie.

“I’m always willing to learn, and the most significant thing is that we leave egos at the door and our goal is to make Dillian better because he is the one in the ring throwing and taking punches, not us.

“I’m here and he’s here to lend a hand and win. We are here to win.”

Whyte made no excuses for his defeat Povetkinwhich ended an 11-fight winning streak since his only career loss to Anthony Joshua in 2015, even counting Heavenly sports this week: “If you fight the good guys one by one, you will get knocked down and you will lose. It `s just the way it is.”

During Knight’s 13-year association with Lewis, who became undisputed heavyweight champion in 1999, “The Lion” suffered back-to-back shock defeats to Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman, both of which he avenged, and the veteran trainer sees similarities between the pair in terms of their character and mindset.

“In that respect, the similarities are essentially the same,” Knight added.

“Because when Lennox got knocked out, he didn’t make any excuses, he didn’t blame anyone or anything like that. He stood up, dusted himself off and said, “Hey, I’m going to work on what I need to work on because I know what a mistake I made.” Dillian said the same thing.

“He took a shot, yeah, he knocked me out, but you know, hey, I want to exercise my rematch clause and hey, you know what, I have to up my game, I have to up my weaponry, even if that means bringing in someone else to lend a hand me on the technical side, to lend a hand me see some things that I haven’t seen before.

“Or just another pair of eyes added to Xavier’s that will be able to more or less tell him about the boxing aspect of it, so same similarities.”

The immediate path to a world title fight should Whyte win appears unclear for unified champion Joshua and WBC champion Fury, who is scheduled to meet later this year on a two-fight deal.

Former world champion Povetkin said earlier this week on a Zoom conference call that he did not believe Whyte would change much since their first meeting, but Knight insists his players have reached a level he has not yet reached, one that he expects will be ready for another tough challenge.

“Dillian has a ceiling he hasn’t reached yet.

“I feel like considering he only has eight amateur fights and obviously 29-30 professional fights, it takes a little longer for heavyweights to mature.

“When I came on board, I noticed that Dillian is a really damn good boxer. He can really box, his IQ is off the charts. He knows boxing, he doesn’t just box, we’re talking about a lot of other boxers, whether they’re lightweights, heavyweights, old-school boxers.

“So Dillian still has a ceiling to reach, he still has levels to overcome, I feel like that, so I just feel like we have more upside in this second fight than Povetkin because Dillian is a few inches taller and he has a few inches he has more reach, he hits a little harder, even though Povetkin hits demanding too.

“But Povektin has one style. He’ll come in, he’ll punch you in the face and chest all day long, and Dillian obviously is a fighter, he can punch, but I feel like he has a few more weapons that he’s never used, but he has them, but he’s never used them.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be a really tough fight because Povetkin looks really good, he’s in really good shape and it’s his last fight.

“It’s high stakes for both players, everything is on the line for us, everything is on the line for him. A lot of people from all over the world will really watch this fight.”

The Brixton fighter was criticised in some quarters for failing to finish the job after Povetkin was injured in the fourth round, with Joshua questioning his finishing instincts.

Knight worked with the tardy, great Emanuel Steward, who formulated his notable Kronka style of boxing, based on aggression and an emphasis on securing knockouts.

Knight, a one-time world title challenger, insists Whyte will surprise people and says the plan is to stop Povetkin if the opportunity arises.

“You can expect that we are working to make Dillian smarter.

“When you see that shark-like blood, you’ll take him out of there. We won’t wait.

“But to be smarter and outsmart him, Dillian is stronger. Like I said, to outsmart him and speed him up.

“Being able to strike when he wants to, but also being able to stay focused, being able to keep his hands up, being able to exploit that jab, being able to improvise that jab, using the feints, being able to exploit a boxing repertoire that he hasn’t used in his previous fights.

“In addition to working on his defense, we worked a lot on his defense.

“So you can expect a lot of different things, a lot of people will be surprised, believe me.”