Sergey Kovalev Brings The 'Krusher' Show Back Home

By Jake Donovan

For all that has gone wrong in boxing in 2016, one of the more difficult tasks to pull off remains as scheduled.

Sergey Kovalev and his team – including top-shelf manager Egis Klimas and New Jersey-based promotional outfit Main Events – have planned for more than a year to feature the unbeaten, unified light heavyweight titlist in a homecoming appearance. Not only is it happening on Monday, but will come with HBO cameras in tow, as Kovalev squares off versus perennial Top 10 contender Isaac Chilemba in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

The bout will be his first in his native country since Dec. ’11, a journey that ended in tragic circumstances with his opponent, Roman Simakov slipping into a coma and sadly passing away from injuries sustained following a 7th round knockout loss. Eerily, the showdown with Chilemba will take place at the very same venue, a fact of which Kovalev was repeatedly reminded by his handlers but all along offering his assurance that it won’t be an issue.

Because the light heavyweight fight remains on course, so too does the potential to earn a career defining win and pound-for-pound supremacy later this year. Monday’s title defense is a final optional fight before moving forward with plans for a November 19 collision with unbeaten former super middleweight king Andre Ward, who himself has a stay-busy affair lined up for August 6 in the familiar setting of his hometown in Oakland, California.

Strangely, Ward’s bout with perceived soft touch Alexander Brand proved more difficult to piece together than getting HBO, Russian TV and the venue aligned for Kovalev’s upcoming adventure. Adding to that was what is normally a stressful task in finding a willing opponent for the best light heavyweight in the world – but that also seemingly fell right into place.

“I believe Jolene (Mizzone, matchmaker and vice president of operations for Main Events) called Isaac on a Monday and his team responded (the very next day),” Main Events CEO Kathy Duva recalled of how the event came about. “After the usual back and forth with minor details, the contract was signed and returned to us by that Friday. Isaac very much wanted his title shot. He did everything we ever asked him to do.

“We tried to get him the WBC title shot, and he came up short (versus Eleider Alvarez last November) in a fight many felt he deserved to win. Our feeling that Isaac was deserving and the perfect fight for Sergey, (who) needs to fight a boxer to prepare for Ward. Isaac is a tremendous boxer. If you look at the way he took apart [Vasily] Lepikhin (last March), it was surgical the way he did it. I am fortunate that we have two fighters who wanted the biggest challenge they could get at that moment. It made my job so easy.”

Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs) has done his part as well to make things look easy and go smoothly come fight night.

Having long ago relocated to the United States – particularly for the bulk of past training camps, which have been staged at trainer John David Jackson’s gym in Boca Raton, Florida – the plan for this particular event called for a drastic yet familiar change of scenery. While Chilemba has feverishly trained in South Africa, Kovalev has divided his camp between his Russia homeland and the calming presence that was found essentially in the middle of nowhere in Armenia.

“I try to look for mountainous regions which provide the right elevation and terrain for my conditioning training (biking, running),” Kovalev reveals of the change of pace for this camp. “Armenia is well-known for their mountains and terrain, plus it was also a good opportunity to get away from the attention, to focus solely on training.”

It also gave the 33-year old knockout artist a chance to work with the Russian Olympic boxing squad that will be competing in this summer’s games in Rio. Sharing the same grid space proved helpful in adding new elements to road work, before circling back to familiarity.

After all, it is a prizefight and all successful athletes are creatures of habit.

“I am known for sticking with my plans, for adhering to the established system that works for me. New places, but old routines,” points out Kovalev, who was joined by Jackson at Ekaterinburg's Kurganovo sports base earlier this month.

What has never changed for Kovalev – even after staring death in the face – was his thrill of delivering a knockout ending. Historically, boxers tend to drastically change in the ring after being on the delivering end of a tragic end.

Every so often, there comes an exception. Most notably, Sugar Ray Robinson moved past the 1947 in-ring death of battered foe Jimmy Doyle - about whom he dreamt of killing in the ring the prior evening, prompting his pre-fight request to cancel the bout, to no avail -  to continue his welterweight reign before moving up to become a five-time middleweight champ and whom most consider the greatest boxer of all-time.

Kovalev remains a long way from that, but conceivably two wins away from being recognized as the very best of his time. The winner of the November 19 light heavyweight championship bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will likely be hailed as pound-for-pound the best boxer in the world today, of course with all apologies due to Roman Gonzalez and Gennady Golovkin.

Before he gets there, he still has to get past Chilemba, who – while falling just short at the contender level – has always proven to be a handful for anyone standing in the opposite corner.

Lending to his cause will be the adoring public in front of which he hasn’t plied his trade in nearly five years.

“The main sponsor of the event, Igor Altushkin of "Russian Copper Company", manager of the sport base "Kurganovo", Vitaliy Kochetkov, and the governor of Sverdlovskaya Oblast, Evgeniy Kuivashev, have all put a lot of effort in exceeding all of my expectations with making the training atmosphere as comfortable as it could get,” notes an appreciative Kovalev. “I am very thankful for their involvement with the preparation and making my team and I feel very welcome in Ekaterinburg.

“It truly feels as if the entire country is (backing me) in this fight! I can tell I'm fighting at home. This support means a lot (to) me.”

It also means a lot to a sport that can use the good news for a change.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2