Gvozdyk is Not in Favor of Fighting Good Friend Sergey Kovalev

By Rick Reeno

This past Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, light heavyweight contender Oleksandr Gvozdyk (12-0, 10KOs) made a big statement at 175-pounds - when he stopped the very durable Isaac Chilemba (24-5-2, 10KOs) in eight rounds.

Gvozdyk vs. Chilemba was a featured fight on the Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward undercard.

Gvozdyk, a 2012 Olympic bronze medal winner for Ukraine, dominated the fight from start to finish. Chilemba suffered a hand injury at some point and wasn't able to continue beyond eight. It was the first stoppage loss of Chilemba's career.

Even more impressive was the fact that only four months earlier in Russia, Chilemba gave Kovalev all he could handle for twelve rounds. And last November Chilemba came very close to upsetting top contender Eleider Alvarez in their WBC final eliminator.

Kovalev lost his WBO, WBA, IBF light heavyweight titles on Saturday, when he lost a very close twelve round unanimous decision to Ward.

There is an immediate rematch cause, so the fight will happen for a second time.

And because of his rapid rise in the ranks, a scenario could very well surface where Gvozdyk would be in line to fight Kovalev.

Gvozdyk considers Kovalev a good friend. They share the same manager in Egis Klimas - but they are guided by rival promoters. Gvozdyk is promoted by Top Rank, while Kovalev is handled by Main Events.

While Gvozdyk has no desire to fight his friend, a future collision could be unavoidable - especially if Kovalev defeats Ward to reclaim three of the four major titles at 175-pounds.

If the fight were to happen, Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is very confident Gvozdyk would come out on top. In fact, he told BoxingScene.com that Gvozdyk would "beat everyone at light heavyweight."

"I understand [what Arum is saying]. I'll say this, I would not want this [fight with Kovalev] to happen - but if this fight is needed, this is a sport and we have a very good relationship... if this fight is there and this is what is needed, then of course I'm going to box. But, this is not something that I would want to happen," Gvozdyk told BoxingScene.com.

Regarding Kovalev's loss, Gvozdyk was "shocked" when Ward was announced as the winner.

"I felt that Kovalev without question won the fight. In the first six rounds you didn't even see anything from Ward. Ward did well at the end of the fight, but I didn't think it was enough to catch up and make it close, in my opinion. And he was also knocked down. I absolutely did not see Kovalev lose this fight," Gvozdyk told BoxingScene.com.

"After that knockdown, I thought Sergey had the win in his pocket. After that, I didn't think the fight would last the entire distance. But it went the distance and I thought it was win for Sergey, but what happened at the end was what happened. I didn't really hear the score. First I heard a unanimous decision and I thought it would be Kovalev. And then I heard 'the new' and I was shocked."