By Jake Donovan

As long as he keeps winning, Sergey Kovalev gets to experience the best of both worlds for his next two starts.

The unbeaten, unified light heavyweight titlist heads home to his birth land of Russia for a July 11 showdown with Top 10 contender Isaac Chilemba. The bout - which will mark Kovalev's eighth defense of at least one light heavyweight title - also serves as his first fight in his birth country since Dec. '11, with the show taking place in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

With a win, the 33-year young boxer will move forward with perhaps the biggest fight of his career to date, a November 19 clash with unbeaten former super middleweight king Andre Ward. The bout will headline an HBO Pay-Per-View telecast, which will take place either in New York or Las Vegas.

For those curious as to why the two can't meet straight away, the answer is simple.

"It's (in the) contract," Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs) quipped when asked during his appearance on ESPN SportsNation on Monday afternoon. "We signed (a) contract to have two fights before our fight in November. We fight one time (each), now I'm ready to have another (in July versus Chilemba)."

Both boxers did their part to keep alive the attractive light heavyweight matchup. Kovalev tore through familiar foe Jean Pascal in their rematch this past January, while Ward enjoyed a successful debut as a full-fledged light heavyweight with a 12-round nod over previously unbeaten Sullivan Barrera this past March in his hometown of Oakland, California.

Kovalev will now move towards his second interim bout, a title defense versus the crafty Chilemba (24-3-2, 10KOs), who is coming off of a hotly-contested points loss to Eleider Alvarez last November in Canada.

Ward's future plans have yet to be confirmed, although all signs point to a summer bout of his own. His aforementioned win over Barrera was met with mixed reviews and by his own admission was far from his best night in the office.

One more ring appearance should help restore his form to that of the boxer identified by many as among the very best in the world, pound-for-pound.

"(Ward) is a great boxer with very good skill," acknowledges Kovalev, himself now universally recognized as a Top 3 pound-for-pound entrant and the best light heavyweight in the world. "I think he wants to fight one more time. It's going he's going be much better for (the) November fight. He didn't fight for (nine) months before his last fight. He's going to want one more fight, which is going to be even better (for our fight)."
 
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow him on his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2