by David P. Greisman

Andre Ward is both complimentary of Sergey Kovalev while also being confident that he will prevail over the light heavyweight titleholder when they meet on Nov. 19 in Las Vegas.

“Everybody knows what he brings to the table. He’s the champion. He’s defended his championship. He’s beat really good fighters, and he’s beat really good fighters on the road,” Ward told media members in mid-September. “So he’s the real deal. He’s not a guy with a padded record or a guy with a bunch of soft touches. Obviously I see weaknesses and different things that we’re going to exploit or we want to exploit.”

Kovalev is undefeated at 30-0-1 with 26 knockouts. Ward feels he can take advantage of what has made Kovalev so successful so far.

“Guys like Kovalev, guys that are big punchers, his nickname is the ‘Krusher’, so when things get rough, what is he going to try to do? He’s going to try to crush,” Ward said. “He’s not going to think about his game plan. He’s not going to listen to what his coaches tell him. He’s going to go back to what he knows, which is fight hard, and then that’s going to make it even worse. He’s going to go back to who he is, because that’s all he knows. Guys with that kind of reputation can’t fathom, really, anything else happening other than knocking a guy out or [their] power being a determining factor. It’s in them. They can’t think of anything else.”

Ward did acknowledge Kovalev’s background and skill set.

“He comes from the Eastern Bloc system. He comes from a good boxing background. He’s technically sound,” Ward said. “He can box. He can do multiple things in the ring. We’re not ignorant of that. But ultimately that’s [relying on his power is] who he is. I’ll put it like this: If he had to pick whether he was going to depend on power in this fight or his boxing ability, I guarantee you he’s going to pick power. That’s what’s in his mind.”

One media member noted that Kovalev had used his boxing while shutting out Bernard Hopkins in 2014.

“I’m not Bernard Hopkins,” Ward countered. “And no disrespect to Bernard Hopkins, I’m not 40 years old, or 49, almost 50. That’s just the reality of the situation. If he can stand up with me and go skill for skill, it’s going to make that much more of a great fight. But ultimately, I think we all can agree that’s who he is.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com