By Allan Fox: Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) says his goal is to destroy IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Andre “SOG” Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) in “The Rematch” between them on June 17 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kovalev says he’s going to punch Ward and punish him, and not let the judges have a say so in the rematch. Kovalev says he doesn’t rate Ward as the pound for pound No.1 fighter like Ring Magazine recently voted “SOG” in following the loss of Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.
Kovalev was testy during Monday’s kickoff press conference in New York. Kovalev said he hadn’t got much sleep the night before, but it looked more like he was annoyed by the repetitive questions from the media on the same subject. Kovalev admits that he faded in the second half of the fight against Ward last November. Ward won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but it was very close on the judges’ scorecards.
Kovalev said that he lost power on his shots after the 5th, believing that it was because of his hard training camp. He did a little too much in preparing for the fight. He says he’ll do less in camp so he’s not worn down by the time he gets to the fight. In looking at the fight, it appeared that Ward wore Kovalev down with by extinguishing his work rate by suffocating him on the inside rather than fighting. Kovalev wasn’t ready for round after round of Ward smothering him with his inside work. That seemed to be the main factor in causing Kovalev to tire out. Up until the Ward fight, Kovalev had never fought anyone that wrestled as much as him. He wasn’t ready for that.
“We already had a contract for the first fight. We already had a contract,” said Kovalev about his rematch clause in his first contract for the Ward fight. “They didn’t go this contract. They made a second, another one. I signed, I’m ready for anything. He don’t mean anything to me,” said Kovalev about Ward. “He thinks too much of himself. He does not deserve respect from me. I want to punch him and punish him. I will get this opportunity. I want to punch him very much. Right now, I can’t, but I want to very much. My performance in my last fight was not very good for me. I know I can much better. The second part of the fight was without power, without energy. It’ll be more punches and the right decision. I will get my belts back. I didn’t think in the 5th round my power was finished. It’ll be a different plan in training camp,” said Kovalev.
Ward is saying he’s going to push a fast pace from the get go in the rematch. He thinks it’ll wear Kovalev down much faster than last time. He’s probably right. If Ward starts his smothering tactics right away, it’s going to be almost impossible for Kovalev to get his punches off. When the two of them are on the inside, Ward’s power appears better than Kovalev’s because he’s got shorter arms and he’s more accustomed to fighting in close. Kovalev is new to fighting on the inside and he has a lot to learn.
”I will give him much more knockdowns in the rematch,” said Kovalev. ”To kick his [expletive] is my goal. I will kick his [expletive] 100 percent, believe me. He’s nobody in the ring. If you watch again, the first 4 rounds, I didn’t feel him. I didn’t feel him at all. But in the 5th round, my energy was finished. It was the result of overtraining, I think. In my eyes, [Vasyl] Lomachenko deserves it right now,” said Kovalev about the No.1 pound-for-pound rankings.
If Kovalev doesn’t want to run out of gas in the rematch, then he’s going to need to come up with a plan to make Ward not want to do so much smothering on the inside. Kovalev could help himself if he spends his entire training camp working on his punching on the inside, as well as moves to get Ward off of him when he starts his prolonged inside holding.
Ring Magazine’s decision to promote Ward to their pound-for-pound No1. fighter made little sense to boxing fans. A lot of them see it as a poorly thought out move by Ring Magazine. The guy that clearly is dominating the sport is Vasyl Lomachenko. His wins aren’t controversial and they don’t involve a lot of smothering tactics like we saw from Ward. Lomachenko appears to be fighting well above Ward. I’d be surprised if Ward holds the No.1 spot for any length of time in the pound for pound ratings because it looks odd to a lot of fans. Ring Magazine also has Saul Canelo Alvarez as the middleweight Ring champion despite Gennady Golovkin holding 3 of the 4 world titles.
“The rematch means much more,” said Kovalev. “I’m very happy to have the opportunity to get my belts back. He cannot knock me out. He slaps like a women. The reason there was blood on my nose was because of an elbow, not a punch. I will destroy him. I will punch, punch much more harder with the goal to destroy him and deliver him pain. I love to make it pain for my opponents, and he right now, he deserves it. The fight on June 17th will have a different scenario than the first fight. There was problems in the training camp is what I think. The boxing fans will see the ‘Krusher,’ the real Krusher. His corner is either going to stop it or he’s going to get laid down,” said Kovalev about Ward.
This should be a good fight. I think Kovalev has more chances of improving for the rematch than Ward does because he has such a steep learning curve to figure out how to fight on the inside, since that’s obviously where Ward is going to be spending most of the time in the rematch. Ward is dropping major hints left and right that he’s going to make it another inside fight. He’s saying that the fight is going to be a continuation of the first fight, and that means Ward is probably going to take the fight to the inside and keep it there the entire time. Kovalev is light years ahead of Ward in his outside fighting ability. Ward cannot compete with Kovalev on the outside.