— Sergey Kovalev (@KrusherKovalev) April 22, 2015
By Gerardo Granados: Days ago I saw a tweet on the net, posted by several sources stating that it was a IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev tweet in which as the reader already must know shows a picture which was very offensive towards Adonis Stevenson, it was said that hours later the tweet was deleted. Two days passed and then Kovalev offered an apology arguing he is a foreigner and was not aware of the implications such picture had in our culture.
To be fair until I saw the apology I had the doubt of the authenticity of such tweet; but I wondered if Kovalev had done it as a mere joke or if he was serious about it. The shadow of the doubt was there and my view of the fighter changed, because even though I like trash talkers a lot I despise all racist rants.
Back in October 1 of 1975 Muhammad Ali fought Smoking Joe Frazier for the third time and as a part of the promotion of the Thrilla in Manila, Ali insulted Frazier more than once calling him names and using a small size rubber gorilla to refer to Frazier. I was just a small kid then but as the reader I have seen many documentaries that portrait Ali´s offensive conduct. When I saw it, it made me sick, because Ali was supposed to be a human rights activist and to insult Frazier that way was beyond any justification.
Please don’t get me wrong I am not trying to justify Kovalev´s attitude I am just remembering another case in which the media did not judge so severely a boxer who knew very well what meant to other fellow African American to be portrayed the way he was during the promotion of the fight.
Let’s not forget that Prize Fighting is not a delicate or elitist sport like Ballet and Jockey; and many of his participants can be rude and violent people, and to expect that fighters to be fine gentlemen is not a very smart idea.
The damage on Kovalev´s image is done be it small or big, now it’s up to fight fans to decide what to believe. If he was serious about the picture then for sure I will stop following him but if he is honest on his apology then I won’t condemn him for his mistake. But, I want to ask the reader why condemn Kovalev when Ali wasn’t?
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