Comments Thread For: Sergey Kovalev Smiles, Reveals His New Trainer

[Kigali]

Kovalev has a long way back. Regardless of how I felt about the stoppage and the illegal blows that went in, even before that round, KOv did not look like a world class fighter (neither did Ward mind you). Heck, I remember posting after the weigh in that KOv did not look in the type of shape he is normally. yeah he is never particularly ripped but he normally looks healthy, last time he looked like the russian homeless guys who walk the streets in london.

He needs to dedicate himself or retire.

How do you fell about Kovalev's illegal rabbit punches??

[MDPopescu]

... and this guy never trained a professional fighter, right?

[Chadlio24]

Ummm, Kovalev wasn't stopped in the 2nd fight with Ward... He was hit in the nuts multiple times and then dumba** Tony Weeks hooked his boy up by stopping the first fight ever from a supposed body shot!! After fight even Tony Weeks can't deny that he made the biggest bonehead decision ever because he even said they were low blows... Then gay boy Ward retires because he knew he would be losing very soon!! Please HBO... Stop using this **** as an announcer!!!

[Kigali]

Ummm, Kovalev wasn't stopped in the 2nd fight with Ward... He was hit in the nuts multiple times and then dumba** Tony Weeks hooked his boy up by stopping the first fight ever from a supposed body shot!! After fight even Tony Weeks can't deny that he made the biggest bonehead decision ever because he even said they were low blows... Then gay boy Ward retires because he knew he would be losing very soon!! Please HBO... Stop using this **** as an announcer!!!

Kovalev got his rabbit-punching ass whipped...deal with it

[Chadlio24]

All that drama about potentially linking up with someone like Virgil Hunter and he goes with a Russian amateur coach. Nice comfortable choice for Kovalev Is anyone giving this guy real advice about his career? So happy Ward stopped this guy. Would like to see Berbetiev gets his mitts on Kovalev.

Lol, you know that was the biggest GIFT decision in the history of boxing right?!?! Even blind a** Tony Weeks said after watching replay it was a bunch of consecutive low blows... Ward is the biggest little b1tch ever!!!

[Chadlio24]

Kovalev got his rabbit-punching ass whipped...deal with it

Lol, I'm not even a fan of Kovalev but the fact that Ward is even mentioned in top P4P is a disgrace to boxers that actually do it right!!

[Kigali]

Lol, I'm not even a fan of Kovalev but the fact that Ward is even mentioned in top P4P is a disgrace to boxers that actually do it right!!

Maybe a disgrace to you....but you don't matter.

[Uncle Rodge]

Kovalev smiles, feels all fuzzy inside now he's back in the embrace of the state sponsored doping program.

[kafkod]

How dare the Russian boxer who barely speaks enlish hire a Russian trainer! If he had only hired an American trainer, I would have rooted for him to destroy Ward, but since he hired a Russian trainer, I'm so glad Ward lost to him and then hit him in the balls! Yesss!!!! And now I just hope Artur Beterbiev, the next great American superstar, also beats up Kovalev! Yess!!!!

I dont get you man. Who is Beterbiev's coach anyway? Not a Russian?

I dont get why everyone blames Kovalev for the JDJ thing. It seems to me like JDJ is the one who doesnt know what he's doing. They have an outdated "more is always better" attitude towards physical training, which is probably what burned Kovalev out. The miles he was running some days was absolutely insane. Secondly, JDJ was giving Kovalev horrible advice about hitting Ward's ribs inside until he "broke Ward's ribs." In reality, clinch shots almost never break ribs at that level of boxing, so all that advice actually did was help tire out Kovalev's arms, and give Ward a chance to fight inside, the only area Ward was having any success in their two fights.

Kovalev has also said in many interviews that he actually DOES want a teacher, and that the real problem with JDJ was that JDJ didn't teach him anything, that basically Kovalev's amateur coaches were much better than JDJ, and that everything JDJ was trying to teach him were things he'd already been taught better elsewhere and weren't helping him. In support of this theory, we can see that JDJ has no other top level boxers in his stable, and that his best current boxer, Curtis Stevens, just came off a brutal knockout loss under his stewardship.

So, none of us will really know the exact story unless we were in camp with them, but as much as you see a pattern of Kovalev being an untrainable a**hole, I see just as much or more of a pattern of JDJ not being a good trainer, and of Kovalev complaining about that, and simply being honest about how he wasn't unhappy with the low quality of teaching he was getting from JDJ. The only thing that makes me lean towards blaming Kovalev, like you do, is that Abel Sanchez also had a falling out with him, but guess what, Abel Sanchez is also known for, essentially, overtraining boxers, in high altitude at that, and now we are seeing GGG decline at an insanely high rate in his early-and-mid-thirties, so once again it begs the question, why automatically believe the trainer? Because as I said, I see just as much or more evidence that not only JDJ, but also Abel Sanchez, may not know what they're doing, as I see evidence that Kovalev is to blame.

So, it might not be as simple as you think.

IMO, Golovkin is looking in remarkably good shape for a 35 year old pressure fighter who does year round VADA testing, especially taking into account his 350 fight amateur career.

He doesn't look quite as good as he did 2 years ago, but age catches up with them all eventually, no matter how they live and train.

[kafkod]

I totally agree with you about Abel Sanchez, who over-relies on scientific data to direct the approach he takes. I think he tries to change the DNA of a fighter according to the opponent rather than let a fighter keep his natural talents.
Case in point: When he took on Miguel Cotto, Cotto's natural strengths of his hooks and other trademark Cotto moves started to disappear.

As soon as Cotto I think got back with Freddie Roach; Freddie said: 'right let's get back to working on what you do naturally best', which worked as I think Cotto when on a win streak with Roach, after suffering losses with Sanchez.

Cotto did train at Big Bear for a while, but it was a Cuban called Pedro Diaz who had him then, not Abel. Just looked it up.

http://www.espn.co.uk/boxing/story/_...tto-back-basis