Duva: Kovalev Must Remain Motivated For Lesser Fight

By Keith Idec

According to his promoter, among the things Sergey Kovalev must prove Saturday night is that he can remain motivated for a title defense he’ll enter as a heavy favorite.

Several Internet sports books have installed Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs) as a 50-1 favorite over mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi (37-3, 23 KOs) as they move toward their 12-round fight Saturday night at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas (HBO; 10 p.m. ET/PT). The Russian knockout artist was favored over Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal as well, but those two accomplished opponents were at least considered live underdogs prior to Kovalev’s victories over them.

Mohammedi, 30, has won 13 straight fights since suffering a second-round TKO defeat to Russia’s Dmitry Sukhotsky (22-3, 16 KOs) in October 2011. Most of those 13 victories have come against pedestrian opposition, though, and Mohammedi previously was stopped in the first round of a September 2009 bout by France’s Thierry Karl (31-6, 19 KOs).

Kovalev, 32, has won 14 of his past 16 fights by knockout or TKO and knocked out 86 percent of his professional opponents since he turned pro in July 2009.

“Every fighter has to, at some point when he becomes accomplished enough, has to get to that place where he can get himself up for absolutely everyone,” Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events (Kovalev’s promoter), said on a recent conference call. “To me, that’s what makes a great champion, that guy who can get up for absolutely anybody. And I think Sergey is that guy. This is another step for him, as he said. This is another thing he needs to prove. It’s one thing to go in there with that fury and be able to demolish your opponents or to go in there and give a thousand percent when you’re on the way up. Sergey’s still on the way up, but he’s a lot further up along the way.

“He’s had two terrifically difficult and challenging fights in his last two fights. And there’s a natural human tendency to want to let up a little bit on the gas pedal when you fight someone who you perceive as not being as difficult. There’s a whole list of really great fighters who’ve lost in that situation. So Sergey has to now prove to himself and to everyone else that he’s not going to be the guy who loses in that situation. So there’s always something interesting.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.