By Jake Donovan
Sergey Kovalev’s long-awaited homecoming finally appears to be on course.
The unbeaten, unified light heavyweight titlist will fight in his home country in his next ring appearance, which will take place July 11 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Kovalev will face Isaac Chilemba. News of his fight was due to be announced during a recent press gathering Saturday afternoon in Inglewood, California, but has already been leaked by German Titov Promotions – who will co-promote along with Main Events – to the Russian media.
Whether or not any of Kovalev’s titles will be at stake depends largely on the sanctioning bodies’ flexibility with the rules. (Editor's Note: Main Events' Nicole Duva insists the titles will be at stake and that Chilemba's absence from the WBA, IBF and WBO rankings is "temporary" due to his WBC eliminator with Eleider Alvarez last November),
The hosting city is of major significance to Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs), who has only fought in his native Russia just twice before. Both appearances have come in Yekaterinburg, which is roughly three hours north of his birth town of Kopeysk, Russia.
His last fight in the industrial city – which sits on the Eurasia (Europe and Asia) border – produced a result that any athlete would long to forget, a fatal 7th round knockout of Roman Simakov, who slipped into a coma and died days after their Dec. ’11 clash.
Kovalev ultimately moved past the ring fatality, though naturally never coming to grips with the incident. He donated his entirety of his next fight purse to the Simakov family, that moment coming in his 2nd round knockout of Darnell Boone in their June ’12 rematch.
Essentially fighting for free proved to be an investment into his future. The ring appearance came on an NBC Sports Network telecast as part of the “Fight Night” series once proudly presented by Main Events, but which was terminated in 2014 and since replaced with a far inferior portion of Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions series.
Main Events managed to get just enough out of its series to position Kovalev into the boxing star that he is today, as he is widely regarded as the far and away the best light heavyweight on the planet. That status had the chance to be challenged by lineal light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, who has camped out on the Haymon side of the political divide in lieu of what was once a collision between the division’s two best boxers.
Kovalev instead established his dominance with a 12-roun shutout over Bernard Hopkins in their Nov. ’14 unification bout and a pair of stoppage wins over Jean Pascal on the road in Canada, the latter of the two coming in his most recent ring performance this past January.
Each of his past eight bouts have aired live on HBO, though the upcoming showdown with Chilemba (24-3-2, 10KOs) will likely end that streak given its location and the fact that the event will be staged on a Monday.
There were once talks of the HBO cameras following Kovalev to Russia for a planned appearance last November, but the movement never evolved beyond the discussion stage. Instead, Main Events – who has faithfully promoted the Russian knockout artist since 2012 – worked out terms for its light heavyweight to face Andre Ward later this year.
The current deal in place allowed for both boxers to take on a maximum of two interim bouts before their direct clash, tentatively penciled in for November 19 on HBO Pay-Per-View. Kovalev’s aforementioned repeat win over Pascal marked his first fight under that agreement, with the upcoming bout with Chilemba as the second allotted bout.
Ward is coming off of a 12-round win over previously unbeaten Sullivan Barrera this past March on HBO live from his hometown in Oakland, California. It is not yet known whether the unbeaten former super middleweight king will take a second fight or just head straight to the guaranteed meet with Kovalev.
The media roundtable in place for Saturday afternoon is Kovalev’s second such appearance preceding an HBO telecast featuring another fighter. The 33-year old held court prior to Ward-Barrera, and now will do so again just hours before another pound-for-pound star, unbeaten and unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin tops an HBO show versus Dominic Wade.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
