By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – John David Jackson doesn’t expect any surprises when walking Sergey Kovalev to the ring Saturday night.
That’s when Kovalev’s trainer learned before his first fight against Andre Ward that an unidentified member of Kovalev’s team would speak to Kovalev in Russian when they were between rounds.
There were times Jackson assumed the translator was relaying his instructions to the former light heavyweight champion. There also were instances when Jackson thinks the translator, who is no longer a part of the tem, was giving his own advice to Kovalev.
That caused confusion in their corner that Jackson told Kovalev and his manager, Egis Klimas, must be avoided when Kovalev faces Ward in their 12-round rematch Saturday night at Mandalay Bay Events Center (HBO Pay-Per-View; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT; $64.99 in HD). Kovalev must make adjustments against the cerebral, experienced Ward, and Jackson cannot worry whether Kovalev is actually receiving his suggestions in their light heavyweight championship rematch.
“I’ve been guaranteed I’ll be doing all the speaking and they’ll do all the [translating],” Jackson told BoxingScene.com. “So that’ll make my job a whole lot easier this time around. It won’t be like last time.”
Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) will have a different translator in his corner Saturday night because Kovalev is more comfortable conversing in his native language. After discussing the issue with Kovalev and Klimas, Jackson expects the translation process to be much smoother Saturday night than it was November 19, when Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) beat him by unanimous decision at T-Mobile Arena.
“It was a big problem,” Jackson said. “I couldn’t get my point across. I couldn’t say much. It was just tough to give him any kind of strategy.”
Jackson thought it could become a problem that night, but he found out about the switch so late there wasn’t anything he could do to change anyone’s mind.
“I knew as we were walking down to ringside,” Jackson said. “That’s when they told me, as we were walking to the ring. I said, ‘Are you sure?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘OK. I’m still getting paid, so it’s cool.’
“They just said, ‘Hey John, let this guy do all the talking.’ I just said, ‘OK. If that’s what you want, it’s your show.’ I guess they felt that was the best time for them to [tell me] because there couldn’t be too much to fight about at that point.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.