By Radio Rahim
At the Oakland leg of their three city media tour - Virgil Hunter, trainer of Andre “SOG” Ward (31-0, 15 KOs), made an allegation that Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) is a big drinker.
The veteran trainer claims that Kovalev's constant drinking of vodka has affected the boxer's stamina in long fights.
Last November in Las Vegas, Ward was knocked down in the second round, but recovered to win a twelve round unanimous decision to capture Kovalev's WBA, WBO, IBF light heavyweight titles at the T-Mobile Arena.
There were a rematch clause, which Kovalev exercised, and the second fight now takes place on Saturday, June 17 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The championship event will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
In the first encounter, Kovalev admits that he got very tired in the second half of the fight. He attributes his fatigue to overtraining. But Hunter believes Kovalev's consumption of hard liquor is to blame.
“You can’t drink year in and year out and expect at some point for it not to catch up to you and I would bet money that if we could go internally and see inside that that’s one of the causes that’s causing him to get fatigued now. It’s not the overtraining, it’s not this and it’s not that. It’s just guys are standing up and going 12 rounds now. But you can’t drink vodka year in and year out and expect on fight night to fight somebody like Andre," Hunter said.
Kovalev was all smiles when reacting to Hunter's allegation. He says Hunter's claim is confused, because it means a drunk fighter is capable of beating Ward.
"If I'm drinking.. okay.. even when I'm drunk I can get victory on Andre Ward. Even if I'm drunk for last fight, I can get the victory and I was robbed. And I got the victory, and I can even be drunk and get a victory over Andre Ward.. it's funny. It's not true [that I'm drinking all the time]. I wasn't drunk. I care about my health," Kovalev said to BoxingScene.com.
