By Allan Fox: Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) is ready to reveal the new and rebuild version of the Krusher this month in his fight for the vacant WBO light heavyweight title against Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) on November 25 on HBO at Madison Square Garden in New York.
(Photo credit Craig Bennett/Main Event)
Much of the cockiness has been driven out of Kovalev following his back to back defeats at the hands of Andre “SOG” Ward. Kovalev is no longer blaming Ward for having fouled him with low blows in their rematch last June. Kovalev is taking responsibility for his 2 defeats, and seeing it as a case him not having trained properly for both fights.
Kovalev, 34, now has a new trainer, who replaced old trainer John David Jackson, and he feels that he’s improved his game and ready to defeat Shabranskyy on November 25 to win the vacant WBO light heavyweight title.
“I’m very happy that I got a coach — real coach,” said Kovalev to Fighthub.” I’m very happy that I got a real coach. Right now all my training under his control and I believe in this guy hundred percent, and we understand each other because we [speak the same language]. ”Even [though he’s from] Uzbekistan — I’m Russian, you know — but we’re from USSR together. We was born in USSR and we understand each other on the Russian language,” said Kovalev.
Kovalev needs to keep his emotions under control if things don’t go his way against Shabranskyy on November 25. Instead of blaming the coach or seeing it as another robbery, he should take a good look in the mirror and understand the problem is with him. Kovalev’s conditioning hasn’t been good for his last 3 fights against Ward and Isaac Chilemba. That was just one of the problems Kovalev had. The other problem was that Kovalev couldn’t deal with getting hit with body shots.
Ward’s punches to the body sapped the strength out of Kovalev. That’s something that might not change no matter who trains Kovalev. Some fighters can’t handle getting hit with body shots, and Kovalev appears to be one of them. One thing Kovalev can do to try and avoid this problem is to stay on the outside as much as possible. He cannot let himself get caught in a grappling contest with Shabranskyy or any of his opponents from this point on, since that kind of fighting seems to take the energy out of Kovalev.
“You know, my mind was busy with a lot of trash of everything that happened with me, you know, like since [Isaac] Chilemba fight, because all my problems started with Chilemba fight,” said Kovalev. “I just understand that all my problems came from myself. You know, what I did, what I didn’t, and like, just now, cleaning up everything from my mind, from my life, and right now here for a new chapter in my boxing career.”
It’s a different look for the Russian Kovalev not to be blaming someone for his defeats. Hopefully, he can keep it that way for the remainder of his career. Things aren’t going to always go well for Kovlaev. In fact, he might even lose to Shabranskyy. It’s unlikely that Kovalev will lose, but it’s definitely possible. Shabranskyy is the younger fighter at 30, and he has a lot less mileage on him compared to Kovalev. Shabranskyy has been looking good as of late with his two consecutive wins over Todd Unthank May and Larry Pryor.
