By Yuri Tarantin
Sergey 'Krusher' Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs) is not overlooking the upcoming challenge of huge underdog Isaac 'Golden Boy' Chilemba (24-3-2, 10KOs), which takes place on July 11th in Russia.
Kovalev is confident that he will walk away with the WBA, IBF, WBO light heavyweight titles come Monday night.
Chilemba had stated in a previous interview that he felt insulted that Kovalev had already revealed a date of November 19th for a planned HBO Pay-Per-View showdown with Andre Ward (29-0, 15KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Ward is also scheduled for an interim-bout. He faces Alexander Brand on August 5th in Oakland, California. Kovalev wants to put on a very impressive performance to jump forward to the Ward pay-per-view in style.
"Nobody has ever knocked Chilemba out. I want become the first," Kovalev said. "Chilemba is a very awkward opponent. He likes to work as a counter-puncher. He does not like to get aggressive during the course of the fight and never steps into the fire. That makes him dangerous. I don't want to overlook Chilemba, because I have to maintain that mental focus of properly dealing with him in order to earn the right to box with Andre Ward."
"Any time that I step into the ring, it's always a huge responsibility - and this time especially, because right in front of me I have another big fight waiting for me."
Ward vs. Kovalev is one of most anticipated fights of the year. Ward dominated the super middleweight division for several years and captured almost every major title in the weight class. Earlier this year, he officially moved up to the light heavyweight division with a dominating performance over undefeated top contender Sullivan Barrera, who was trained by veteran coach Abel Sanchez for the fight.
Yuri Tarantin covers boxing for Allboxing.ru
