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

[NEETzsche]

So was this guy the head coach for Uzbekistan's whole Rio team or just involved with Gaibnazarov? If the former, then he must be very good

[g27region]

Does anyone know if this trainer is any good though? What is he known for? Is he the right guy to introduce new, better science to Kovalev's weight cutting process, and his stamina which is probably related to that? Is this the right guy to teach Kovalev to simply hold on the inside and wait for the referee to break him to range (since, sadly, corrupt/incompetent referees now allow that)?

What is this trainer known for teaching? What are his strengths? Is he known as a magician like Lomachenko's dad, or does he have any reputation at all?

He's ethnic Uzbek, basically his biggest achievment in boxing was training another Uzbek boxer Faizliddin Gaibnazarov in amateurs. Gaibnazarov was a gold champ at the Rio Olympics, turned pro and signed with Top Rank recently

[NEETzsche]

He's ethnic Uzbek, basically his biggest achievment in boxing was training another Uzbek boxer Faizliddin Gaibnazarov in amateurs. Gaibnazarov was a gold champ at the Rio Olympics, turned pro and signed with Top Rank recently

The article mentions that he helped to develop several top amateurs besides Gaibnazarov. Does anyone know who? There's not much info on this guy in English language media

I may be wrong but I think the Uzbek head coach is a guy named Tulkin Kilichev, but maybe Tursunpulatov worked with him?

[GFunk23]

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 They have an outdated "more is always better" attitude towards physical training, which is probably what burned Kovalev out.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.

I agree that JDJ was useless to Kovalev in that second fight with Ward. However even if there were a couple of marginal unintentional low blows, Ward decisively beat Kovalev physically and mentally that night and won almost every round. Their first fight could have gone either way. My issue in this situation with Kovalev is that I think he needs a tough, disciplinary coach who knows how to deal with big egos who have made good $ in the pros, and like a lot of other posters, I think he is picking a guy who probably won’t be tough on him and lay down the law given the lack of professional experience. Perhaps this trainer is better suited for the pro game and can bring out the best in him, but I doubt it. Kovalev is 34 and it’s harder to teach an old dog new tricks. Berbetiev and Kovalev need to fight in 2018. Berbetiev has been calling for this fight and claims to have beaten Kovalev in the amateurs. Berbetiev will be the IBF champ soon so Kovalev needs to step up

[NEETzsche]

Berbetiev and Kovalev need to fight in 2018. Berbetiev has been calling for this fight and claims to have beaten Kovalev in the amateurs. Berbetiev will be the IBF champ soon so Kovalev needs to step up

Beterbiev was offered the Kovalev fight and turned it down

http://www.espn.com/blog/dan-rafael/...ev-no-surprise

[SkillspayBills]

Prejudiced *****, in a year or two his new trainer will be calling him an *******.

[j0zef]

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.

This is not a bad post, but the problem is that there have been multiple world-class trainers that said Kovalev is very difficult to coach and does not listen. Saying 'I want a teacher, someone who will coach me' is a nonsense statement. Of course he's gonna say that. What else is he gonna say?

But we have a ton of evidence to the contrary - that he's headstrong and wants to do things his way. He's also 34. Chances of him suddenly becoming coachable are pretty much nonexistent.

There have been plenty of fighters who changed their styles or added someone new to their skill in their mid/late 30s - but all of those were students of the art beforehand.

[mathed]

Options:

A. Trainer who will make me train and cost me a lot of money.

B. Yes man who will work for beer and ******* and do what I train him to train me to do.

Hmmmm........

So the Euro trainer who just helped a guy win a gold medal in boxing is a nobody coke addict? His gold medal pupil must have lucked out or something to have such a bum for a coach.

[GFunk23]

[QUOTE=NEETzsche;18163327]Beterbiev was offered the Kovalev fight and turned it down

Good point although we now know that Beterbiev had some issues with his management contracts at the time. He has been calling for the fight since mid-2016 and once he wins the belt, it should happen.

[club fighter]

Only reason he's smiling is because Ward retired.