By Jim Dower: IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) and Andre Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) both successfully weighed in on Friday for their fight this Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both Ward and Kovalev weighed in at the light heavyweight limit at 175 pounds.
Neither of them looked weight drained from having taken water weight off to get down to the 175lb limit. The face-off was a long one with both guys staring at each other until one of the team members stepped in to have them move apart.
(Photo credit: Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/Roc Nation Sports)
Ward stared at Kovalev without emotion on his face. However, you could tell there was bad blood between them, as both guys have issues with each other. Ward sees Kovalev as a bully, and he plans on putting him in his place tomorrow night. Kovalev thinks Ward is a dirty fighter who fights in a boring manner. Kovalev plans on knocking Ward out and sending him on his way.
Ward said on Thursday that he’s not going to be intimidated by Kovalev, and that he plans on retaliating if he does something rough in the ring. Kovalev had said recently that he might kick Ward if he chooses to fight dirty on Saturday night. Hopefully the fight does not result in a disqualification for either fighter for fouls.
This is a real test for Kovalev in going against former super middleweight champion Ward. There are a lot of boxing pundits who believe that Ward will have too many skills for the 33-year-old Kovalev. However, this is only Ward’s second fight at light heavyweight, and it remains to be seen whether he’s going to be able to handle the size, power and the experience of Kovalev for this weight class.
Ward moved up in weight to 175 last year, but he’s not been matched against light heavyweights on a consistent basis since moving up. He’s only fought one light heavyweight and that’s Sullivan Barrera. Ward’s other two fights were against super middleweights in Alexander Brand and Paul Smith. You can argue that Ward is going to be fighting his first real light heavyweight when he gets inside the ring with Kovalev tomorrow night.
That’s not good news for Ward or his promoters at Roc Nation Sports. They’re assuming that Ward will do well against Kovalev because of the success he had in the past in the 168lb division. They clearly feel that if Ward was able to succeed at 168 against guys like Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler, then he’ll be able to have success against a guy seven pounds heavier at 175 in Kovalev.
If their wrong, then Ward could go down to defeat for the first time in his pro boxing career. You’ll have to wonder who will take the blame for the decision for Ward jumping into the fight against Kovalev so quickly after moving up in weight without the normal preparation that you see from fighters when they move up in weight.
In other weights on the card, former light heavyweight title challenger Isaac Chilemba (24-4-2, 10 KOs) weighed in at 174.75lbs for his fight against unbeaten #4 WBC, #9 WBO #10 IBF Oleksandr Gvozdyk (11-0, 9 KOs). For his part, Gvozdyk weighed in at 174.75lbs.
This is an interesting fight matching 2012 Olympic Bronze medalist from Ukraine Gvozdyk against a very experienced 29-year-old Chilemba, who is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision loss to Kovalev last July in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Chilemba gave Kovalev a lot of problems in losing the fight by a decision. Assuming that Gvozdyk is able to beat Chilemba in an easier manner than Kovalev, it could make a lot of boxing fans feel that Gvozdyk is the next star in the division.
Gvozdyk’s promoters at Top Rank are pretty excited about his potential, and believe that he can win a world title and become a big name in the 175lb division. Saturday night’s fight between Gvozdyk and Chilemba is an experiment to see how well he does. It won’t be good news for Top Rank if Gvozdyk struggles to win or loses the fight to Chilemba. It would show that Gvozyk is not the fighter that they thought he was.
Top Rank is pushing Gvozdyk at a fast pace by matching him against Chilemba in only his 12th fight and second year as a pro, but they need to move him fairly quickly, because he’s about to turn 30. That’s not young for a fighter with little pro experience like Gvozyk. With constant high quality amateur fighters turning pro, you can’t take too much time with Gvozdyk before finding out if he’s going to work out or not. If he doesn’t, then Top Rank will need to look in another direction.
Former middleweight world title challenger Curtis Stevens (28-5, 21 KOs) weighed in at 157.5 pounds for his scheduled 10 round fight against high level journeyman James De La Rosa (23-4, 13 KOs). For his part, De La Rosa weighed in at 159.75lbs. Stevens, 31, will be defending his WBC Continental Americas middleweight title in the fight.
Stevens, #7 WBC, #9 IBF, #12 WBA, #13 WBO, is hoping to get another crack at a world title after he was stopped in the 8th round three years ago by IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in 2013. Stevens was not competitive in that fight. However, he’s won three of his last four fights since the loss to Golovkin. Stevens’ one loss during the last four fights was against Hassan N’Dam in losing by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2014. Stevens was out of the ring for two years after the fight, but came back to defeat prospect Patrick Teizeira by a 2nd round knockout last May.
Other weights on the card:
Maurice Hooker 139 vs. Darleys Perez 137.5
Off television undercard weights
Claressa Shields 167 vs. Franchon Crews 168
Darmani Rock 241 vs. Brice Ritani Coe 242
Vincent Jennings 126.5 vs. Tyler McCreary 128
Sonny Fredrickson 140 vs. Gabriel Duluc 139.75
Botirsher Obidov 157 vs. Bakhram Murtazaliev 160
Henry Beckford 160.5 vs. Meirim Nursultanov 159
