By Keith Idec
Kathy Duva noticed a dramatic difference in Sergey Kovalev when she saw him work out Tuesday.
With two weeks to go before his rematch with Andre Ward, Kovalev’s promoter promptly sensed that the former light heavyweight champion is a fresher fighter than the last time she visited his training camp in Oxnard, California. When Duva arrived there for an open workout before his first fight against Ward, Kovalev looked exhausted.
Duva, Kovalev and his trainer, John David Jackson, think he overexerted himself during that training camp. That’s why they believe he wasn’t as effective during the second half of his controversial loss to Ward as the Russian knockout artist was in the first six rounds November 19 in Las Vegas.
“He overtrained last time,” Duva told BoxingScene.com. “It’s the truth.”
That actually was the second straight fight for which they think Kovalev overtrained.
Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) was able to overcome overtraining against South Africa’s Isaac Chilemba (24-5-2, 10 KOs), who Kovalev defeated by unanimous decision July 11 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) is one of the best boxers in the world, though, a far more proven opponent against top opposition.
“He ran out of gas in the Isaac Chilemba fight as well,” Duva said. “For those two fights, he brought in some personal trainer guy from Russia, who was a track coach. He was training for a sprint. That’s what was happening. This time, he brought in a guy [Alexander Mikhailovich] who is experienced and clearly knows what he’s doing. He’s great and Sergey listens to him.
“So his job mostly has been to tell Sergey to slow down, and stop and rest. I said to Sergey, ‘My God! You look like the complete opposite of the person I saw last November.’ He pointed to his coach and said, ‘Well, that’s because of him.’ He’s got the right guy now. And John is doing what John does, and everybody is in harmony. It’s been a very functional, very well-working group. That was obvious [Tuesday].”
Watching Kovalev train in person has given Duva even more confidence as the 12-round rematch between the 34-year-old Kovalev and the 33-year-old Ward approaches.
“Sergey looks like a beast,” Duva said. “He looks better than he has ever looked. I am so happy. Last time we were here in November, he looked drained and worn out. He trained for three hours and he wouldn’t stop training. He was feeling drained and worn out, so he trained even harder, as if that would somehow fix that. And that’s when he looked his worst. And [Tuesday], oh my God! When he and John were doing the pads, he was hitting them so hard I thought John was gonna go flying out of the ring.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.