By Ryan Burton
MGM Grand, Las Vegas - While many insiders and fans have said that WBA/WBO/IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (30-0) hasn't fought anyone close to the level of his opponent this Saturday in Andre Ward (30-0), Kovalev doesn't believe that the Oakland native has fought anyone of his caliber either.
Some say that Isaac Chilemba, who Kovalev defeated via unanimous decision in July, is somewhat similar style wise to Ward albeit with a lesser skill set.
As for Kovalev, the hard hitting Russian feels the fighter that Ward has faced that most resembles himself is former super middleweight champion Carl Froch. Kovalev acknowledged that Froch was a great fighter but believes that he will present Ward with a much greater challenge.
"He fought some guys like Froch who is a hard puncher too but Froch made a lot of mistakes and Sergey Kovalev is a little different. Believe me. I will try to make it an interesting fight and kick his ass because he is in the way to my dreams right now and I want to clear the way to my dreams because I want to fight more and more fights," Kovalev told BoxingScene.com.
Even though the fight takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Kovalev is confident that most of the fans in attendance will be rooting for him.
He believes that the fans will favor his action style against the American's defense first strategy even though he is fighting on foreign soil.
He went as far as to say he will be doing the fans a favor by beating Ward.
"If Andre Ward is to win this fight, all boxing fans and the boxing world will lose seeing interesting fights in the future because he is a very boring fighter.
"Of course (they will cheer for me). If I win I will show great fights again. If Ward wins then boxing fans will get boring fights in the future," Kovalev explained.
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