By Steve Kim
Currently IBF, WBA, WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (30-0, 26KOs) is up in the mountains of Big Bear, California preparing for his November 19th showdown against Andre Ward (30-0, 15KOs). And early on, his trainer John David Jackson likes what he sees.
"Things are going real well, Sergey is on schedule," he recently told BoxingScene.com. "We're doing a lot of conditioning right now and just going over strategy watching Ward fights, picking him apart and seeing what he does best. He's a very intelligent fighter, I didn't realize how intelligent he was until I watched him and studied him. He's a good fighter."
The HBO Pay-Per-View fight takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It's only the second boxing event to be staged at the new Las Vegas venue, which opened earlier this year.
Over the summer Kovalev took a stay-busy fight and out-pointed durable contender Isaac Chilemba in his home country of Russia on July 11th. Chilemba was only the second fighter to go the distance with Kovalev since 2010. Performing at home, Kovalev was pulled in many directions leading up to the fight. The trainer believes he's got a much more attentive fighter for this camp.
"For this fight I do, after the last fight I told him I needed him more focused and listen to his team more," explained Jackson. "So for this fight here he's giving me his all and he's giving me a chance to really mold him and make him the complete fighter he needs to be for this fight."
Kovalev is splitting his camp before leaving for Las Vegas in mid-November.
"We've been here for three weeks, we're here two weeks more. That's five weeks total and then we go down to Oxnard for the final four weeks," said Jackson.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
