By Jeff Aranow: Former light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) is reportedly interested in adding the help of Andre Ward’s trainer Virgil Hunter, according to Fighthype. Hunter recently offered to train Kovalev following his 8th round knockout defeat in his rematch with Ward on June 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kovalev, 34, appears to looking to hit the reset button on his boxing career following his back to back defeats at the hands of Ward. Kovalev is interested in moving to cruiserweight in what would be a new beginning for him.
”Ward’s trainer has offered to work with me. It is an interesting proposal,” said Kovalev to Fighthype.com. “I asked my manager to find out if all of this is true and under what conditions.”
If Kovalev does decide to sign up Hunter as his trainer, it means that he’ll need to decision what to do with his current trainer John David Jackson. Does Kovalev keep Jackson and have Hunter working alongside him? That might be a difficult arrangement to work out.
Kovalev will need to move his training camps over to the Bay Arena in Northern California if he decides to go with Hunter as his new trainer. Hunter’s gym is in Hayward, California.
Kovalev was hurt with a punch to the head from Ward. Hunter is not going to be able to help Kovalev take head and body shots better, especially if he’s moving to cruiserweight. Ward is not a big puncher. Kovalev shouldn’t have been hurt by him. Never the less, if Kovalev is having a hard time taking Ward’s power shots, what’s going to happen to him when he starts getting hit hard by the powerful cruiserweights, who hit much harder than Ward could ever hope to hit.
Murat Gassiev has one punch power at cruiserweight, and Oleksander Usyk, Denis Lebedev and Mairis Briedis are all powerful fighters. Kovalev would need to become a pure boxer if he moves up to cruiserweight.
In addition to adding a trainer Hunter, Kovalev needs help with his conditioning. Kovalev’s defeat to Ward was his third straight fight in which he faded after 5 rounds. Kovalev twice gassed out in his 2 fights with Ward, and he also looked very fatigued in his fight with Isaac Chilemba in July of 2016. If it’s not a training problem, it could mean that it’s time for Kovalev to move up to cruiserweight.
Before Kovalev started training camp for the rematch with Ward, he looked quite heavy. Kovalev appeared to be carrying around a lot of excess fat. Cruiserweight would be a tough division for Kovalev, as the best fighters in that division rehydrate well over 200 pound. They look like small heavyweights.
Kovalev has a slender physique. He might crumble under the heavy blows from the top cruiserweights like Murat Gassiev, Mairis Briedis and Denis Lebedev. Those fighters would target Kovalev’s body to take advantage of his problems in taking body shots. Ward stopped Kovalev with 3 body shots that had him bent over in pain in the 8th round on June 17. In the first fight with Kovalev last November, Ward wore him down with body shots thrown in close. Kovalev looked like he had nothing left in the second half of the fight.
Kovalev is 34 now, and he’s starting to have problems in every fight, not just his two fights with Ward. It’s possible that Kovalev is getting older now, and his age is catching up to him. it happens to a lot of fighters when they reach their mid-30s. Hunter isn’t going to be able to fix Kovalev’s aging.
Hunter is not going to be the Fountain of Youth to transform Kovalev into his mid-20s to make him the fighter he was 9 years ago. At best, Hunter can possibly teach Kovalev how to fight on the inside and defend against body shots, which is what he said recently in volunteering to help him.
There are 2 specific areas that Hunter believes he can help Kovalev and that’s in defending from body shots and working on the inside. Kovalev’s inside fighting skills were no match for Ward in their two contests.
Kovalev shouldn’t be too quick to switch out Hunter if it doesn’t work out with him immediately. If Kovalev struggles in his first fight with Hunter, he shouldn’t dump him. Kovlalev needs to listen to him, following his instructions, and try and be patient.
”I would tell Kovalev, If [John David] Jackson and everybody’s gone, come on down with us! I’m sure he’ll have a lot of fun and I believe at this stage that I could teach him how to be a devastating body puncher,” said Hunter to Fighthype. I think we have an environment that if he had no other choice, he’d thrive in. So it’s not a solicitation, it’s like if all else fails, you know, we have the compassion and love for you in the rest of your career. That’s all.”
Just how help Hunter can be with Kovalev will depend largely on whether he’s willing to listen to him. If all Hunter is going to do is hold the mitts for Kovalev, then there’s no point in the two of them working with each other. Hunter isn’t going to be able to teach Kovalev anything if he’s not ready or willing to listen to him. Kovalev has been exposed now by Ward.
Every fighter that faces Kovalev from this point on will be attacking his body with hard shots to wear him down in the same way Ward did. Kovalev needs to soak up as much knowledge as he can from Hunter. It could be tough on Hunter though if Kovalev brings in another trainer or 2. I don’t think that’s a good situation for Hunter or Kovalev. He needs one guy that he works with at this point in his career. If Hunter is going to be working the corner with another trainer during fights, it might be a bad situation for Hunter. If things continue to go wrong, will Kovalev put the blame on Hunter or the other trainer? It could be a real mess.
