By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Sergey Kovalev won’t take kindly to Andre Ward clinching him Saturday night.
The unbeaten Russian half-joked about reacting forcefully when Ward attempts to tie him up on the inside when they meet in a highly anticipated light heavyweight championship match at T-Mobile Arena. The highly skilled Ward figures to try to neutralize Kovalev’s vaunted power at least some of the time by holding his strong opponent in their HBO Pay-Per-View main event ($64.95-$69.95 in HD).
“I saw that he can feel comfortable, very good inside, in a close fight,” Kovalev said. “But I’m not Alexander Brand. I’ll break his hands if he will try to hug me or something. I will do everything within the rules of boxing, not [outside] of the rules. I never broke the rules in the fights. Everything follows the rules of boxing.”
Referee Robert Byrd’s job could become increasingly difficult if clinches cause conflict during their 12-round fight for Kovalev’s IBF, WBA and WBO 175-pound titles.
Ward (30-0, 15 KOs), a 32-year-old former super middleweight champion from Hayward, California, is a slight favorite over Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs), a 33-year-old champion who has made eight defenses of the WBO light heavyweight title he won from Wales’ Nathan Cleverly in August 2013.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
