by David P. Greisman
Sergey Kovalev (30-0, 26KOs) thinks highly of Andre Ward (30-0, 15KOs), but he hadn’t thought about him that often before the past year.
There’s a good reason for that.
“I never thought that one day I will be facing Andre Ward,” Kovalev told BoxingScene.com. “I was busy in my division. I didn’t give attention to super middleweight or to cruiserweights.”
But now the former super middleweight champion is at light heavyweight. A deal for Ward and Kovalev to fight was in the works beginning earlier this year. It’s official now, with them set to stand in the ring against each other in the main event of an HBO Pay-Per-View card on Nov. 19 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I saw just the live two last fights, against Sullivan Barrera and against [Alexander] Brand,” Kovalev said. “I saw a couple rounds of his fights against Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler.
That gives him only a slight window into what Ward can do. There will need to be more homework. Kovalev hasn’t started that yet.
“I have a plan to watch, learn something more about Andre Ward, just when we’ll start my training camp,” Kovalev said.
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
