Kovalev's Coach Reacts To Hunter's Claim of Training Camp Turmoil

By Rick Reeno

MGM Grand, Las Vegas - Virgil Hunter, who is the head trainer for Andre Ward (30-0, 15KOs), has been throwing more than his fair share of verbal jabs at Sergey Kovalev and his entire team.

According to Hunter, he doesn't believe Kovalev (30-0, 26KOs) and his trainer John David Jackson are on the same page with everything in camp.

The fight is nearly upon us, with Ward and Kovalev fighting for the IBF, WBO, WBA light heavyweight titles tomorrow night at the T-Mobile Arena.

Hunter also questioned the circumstances which took place during Kovalev's harder than expected decision win over Isaac Chilemba in Russia back in August.

"I'm very attuned to body language, I'm very attuned to tone of voice, and from what I hear, from what I see, it's safe to say that there is a lot of disarray in that camp. What I mean by that is I don't even know if Coach Jackson is getting the respect he is due in that camp but time will tell. For instance, why do we have to make an excuse for Kovalev in Russia for selling tickets and things. Don't you have a team who could have taken care of that? You're supposed to have a team to take care of that to take the pressure off the fighter," Hunter said.

Jackson played down Hunter's claims and predicts the proof of their union will be on display when Kovalev walks out of the ring with his undefeated record intact.

"He said in the last fight I was there for a week. I would love to tell you that wherever you got your information from was bad information. I was there longer than two weeks or three weeks. Whoever said I was there for a week I am glad they said that. It makes it look like we are a bad team. I love that," Jackson said.

"To answer your questions about the cohesiveness of our team, whatever goes on in camp, whatever disagreements that we may have or people say we have, I want you to remember this, all the writers out here, come fight night we will leave the same way that we came in - undefeated. Sergey wins every fight. He wins the way he is supposed to win and he did everything that I asked of him."