By Steve Kim
At this time last year, Sergey Kovalev was the unified light heavyweight champion and had no losses on his record.
Now fast forward to late September of 2017, he is coming off consecutive losses to Andre Ward and a bit of an unclear future.
He was last seen in the ring back in June, suffering a TKO defeat in his rematch with Ward at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
It was formally announced on Thursday Kovalev would face Vyacheslav Shabranskyy on November 25th at the Theater of Madison Square Garden on HBO.
"Look, he's still one of the top ten pound-for-pound fighters in the world, he's still 'the Krusher', he's still exciting," said Kathy Duva, who's company Main Events promotes the Russian slugger.
"I think it's great to give him a chance to get in front of his audience on HBO with an opponent that's going to throw punches back at him. It's been a little over two years since he fought in the United States on HBO. So I think we need to re-acquaint him with his audience and get him back on track."
Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KO's) last November dropped a highly controversial decision to Ward and then this past June 17th was stopped by Ward in the rematch. While he still has to be considered among the top 175-pounders in the world, he no longer has that cloak of invincibility.
But, Duva believes there is still plenty left in the gas tank with Krusher.
"He went for that brass ring trying to get that win over Ward. He fought Ward and the judges the first time, he fought Ward and the referee the second time. It's time to move on and go back to being 'the Krusher,'" Duva said.
Also on Thursday, Ward announced his retirement from the sport. That move will create three vacant world titles (WBA, IBF, WBO) and provide Kovalev - should he win in November - the opportunity to fight for one of those belts.
Steve is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.