By Rick Reeno
WBA/IBF/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25KOs) will be training through the holidays, as he prepares for a finalized rematch with Jean Pascal (30-3-1, 17KOs) on January 30th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. HBO will televise.
Kovalev and Pascal traded punches at very same venue back in March. The fight had a lot of fireworks and Pascal put in a very good effort, but he was eventually stopped in the eight round.
The two fighters returned in July, where they co-headlined an HBO televised doubleheader from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The show was put together to build up their planned rematch. Not everything went as planned. Kovalev destroyed mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi in three rounds. However, Pascal engaged in a war of attrition with unbeaten Yunieski Gonzalez. After ten rounds, Pascal won a close unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the bout 96-94.
The fight with Gonzalez was not a satisfactory performance for Pascal, who recently hired Freddie Roach to prepare him for the rematch with Kovalev.
Kovalev wants to make a statement in their second fight, because Pascal and his team had complained that the referee had overreacted and stopped their fight too early.
"There was an offer from his team and how they think the referee stopped the fight early. I want to put a big dot between me and him. No third fight," Kovalev said.
Despite his big win in March, and Pascal's performance with Gonzalez, Kovalev still expects a tough fight in the rematch - because Pascal knows what to expect and is likely going to switch up his tactics.
"I don't think [the rematch will be easier]. I don't like to do any predictions. He will be working more and [he will] study my style more. He got a new coach already. He's trying to get better against me, but we'll see on January 30th," Kovalev said.
Kovalev is very friendly with Roach and admits he was a bit shocked when he heard the veteran coach had agreed to train Pascal for the rematch.
"When I hear this news, I was surprised but its business. Its a sport. They are working together and for me this is no problem. This is their business," Kovalev said.
Provided he defeats Pascal, and then wins another defense in the summer, Kovalev will march forward to a pay-per-view showdown in the fall with former super middleweight king Andre Ward (28-0, 15KOs).
The two fighters have signed contracts to face each other in the fall of 2016. Both of them will have at least two fights before their anticipated meeting.
"We already signed [to fight each other] for next fall. He should fight three fights next year - including my fight. And I also signed a contract for three fights next year," Kovalev said.
For the moment, Kovalev credits Bernard Hopkins as being the toughest opponent of his career. He acknowledges the high probability of Ward being a much tougher nut to crack.
"He's Olympic champion. He's the last Olympic champion [for the United States]. He's very smart, he's a very technical boxer. He is not an easy fight, but I am getting ready for this," Kovalev said.
Kovalev had hoped to reach this level several years ago, when he first arrived to the Unites States. His career began to take off when he signed a promotional contract with Kathy Duva of Main Events. He recently re-signed with Main Events for several years.
"When I turned to pro, I waited and waited. I thought that when I turned to pro I would be fighting with fighters of this level, how I'm fighting right now. But when I came to America everything was different, not like what I thought when I was in Russia. Just for three years we tried to get a promoter. At first in professional boxing I was very confused and we fought with opponents of a very low level. Then I waited, waited. Five years past and just now [I] started [facing high level opponents], and I'm very happy to be fighting on this level and fighting with boxers on this level," Kovalev said.
