Sergey Kovalev Prepared For Homecoming Versus Chilemba

By Jake Donovan

The hardest part of most of Sergey Kovalev’s career has been the ability to get a willing opponent to share ring space. It’s become more commonplace during his ascension to the top of the light heavyweight division, where he presently resides with three major belts in tow.

With that, Monday’s showdown versus Isaac Chilemba in Ekaterinburg, Russia presents a different kind of challenge. It's not just because the fight marks Kovalev’s first in his birth country in more than four years, as well as the first time he defends any of his belts at home.

The fact that Chilemba was so eager to accept the challenge – and the manner in which talks were so quickly wrapped up in finalizing the deal – is a breath of fresh air at a time when boxers and their teams are making headlines more so for the fights they turn down than the ones that materialize.

This much is not lost on Kovalev – who himself enters a dangerous trap fight ahead of an even bigger event on the schedule. A win – or at least anything other than a loss – is required to keep alive a much-anticipated showdown with unbeaten former super middleweight champion Andre Ward, which is set to take place November 19 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Chilemba (24-3-2, 10KOs) has all the motivation in the world to disrupt those plans, not to mention claiming the scalp of one of the very best boxers in the world today.

None of this is lost on Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs), who trained for his long-awaited homecoming with nothing else on his mind other than the present task at hand.

“The hardest time of my training camp (has passed) now and I am going to give (the fans in Ekaterinburg, Russia) a good show,” Kovalev said of the grind that comes with the final week of training heading into fight week. “My opponent, Chilemba, is very motivated and that is why he is so dangerous.

“But I am also motivated; there are a lot of fights in my future.”

The unified light heavyweight title bout will air live on Russia Match TV, as well as via same-day tape delay on HBO (Monday, 10:15pm ET).

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