Tag: Main Events

Sergey Kovalev promoter Kathy Duva believes he has one more run

Promoter Kathy Duva believes Sergey Kovalev has one more shot at making a run in the sport before he calls it quits.

Promoters are experts at spotting silver linings. There’s usually a silver dollar behind each one.

Kathy Duva, president of Main Events, sees both gleaming in the future for Sergey Kovalev, the former light heavyweight titleholder. Future? Apparently Duva believes her veteran client can make one final run even though he’s coming off a particularly brutal loss at the hands of Canelo Alvarez in November.

Kovalev acquitted himself well for the majority of the fight before Alvarez cut him down in the 11th round, leaving the Russian slumped on the ropes with his head bowed. That was an unsettling image, yes, but Duva, the eternal optimist, sees a clear path forward.

“A lot of people had him beating Canelo going into the 11th round [and] I’m not sure that being competitive with probably the best fighter in the world means your career is over,” Duva said on the recent Everlast TalkBox Podcast. “People have a tendency to write people off very quickly.”

Kovalev has had to deal with such concerns in the past. He was knocked out in brutal fashion by Eleider Alvarez in 2018. Before that he was stopped, albeit controversially, by Andre Ward in 2017. The difference now, according to Duva, is that Kovalev firmly understands that he is in the twilight of his career.

“He knows his career is close to closing,” Duva said. “It’s close to an end, he acknowledges that. But he intends to maybe make another splash before he’s finished, and we’re going to help him do that.”

Part of that help consists of determining the weight at which Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs) wants to fight. His next bout, against Sullivan Barrera (22-3, 14 KOs) on April 25 in Indio, California, will take place at a catch weight of 180 pounds, five over the light heavyweight limit.

Kovalev and Co. are undecided as to whether he’ll campaign at cruiserweight (200-pound limit) or move back down to 175, where he has spent his entire career.

“We’re going to do this at 180 because we want to find out if [making weight] is a problem and if we have to contemplate moving up,” Duva said. “He’s going in a little heavier, not so heavy that he can’t ever go back to 175, but he wants to just see what the difference is, because those last five pounds are the ones that kill ya.”

Kovalev concurs. He recently put up an Instagram post showing him pinching the fat on his body.

 

Weight gain isn’t the only thing on Kovalev’s plate these days. He’s battling disturbing allegations of sexual assault and recently made headlines after reportedly getting arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles.

“He’s a lot happier with the lawyers that he has now,” Duva said. “They’ve made him feel comfortable that this is all going to be OK.”

Duva hopes with a fight on the horizon that Kovalev won’t stray into more trouble.

“When you got something to focus on, you’re mind doesn’t stray into other things,” she said. “He’s not the first fighter who’s fought these problems, and he won’t be the last.”

 

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Sergey Kovalev plans to fight at cruiserweight, says trainer

Sergey Kovalev will be moving up to the cruiserweight division, according to his trainer Buddy McGirt.

The next time Sergey Kovalev ducks through the ropes, expect him to be a bit heavier.

After 39 fights at light heavyweight in a career that spans more than a decade, the former titleholder is looking to start afresh in a new weight class.

“He’s going up to cruiserweight,” his trainer Buddy McGirt told Boxing Junkie. “We’ll start training in about a month.”

Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs) recently loss his 175-pound title to Canelo Alvarez after suffering an 11th-round technical knockout in November. The bout, which generated a career purse for the Russian, came on the heels of what was a taxing fight for Kovalev against Anthony Yarde in late August. Kovalev was nearly out on his feet before storming back to stop the British contender in the 11th round.

McGirt said that he signed off on Kovalev’s decision to move up to cruiserweight under one condition: He can’t come in anywhere close to the 200-pound limit.

“As long as we go to 185 [pounds], we’re good. No more than 185,” McGirt said. “He can come in at 180 and beat those guys. He’ll be light, and that’s OK.”

McGirt said the decision had nothing to do with the loss to Alvarez per se. Rather, he based it off of how Kovalev looked in the past couple of training camps. Cutting weight to make the 175-pound limit was becoming harder and harder.

“I think he’ll be better at that weight (cruiserweight),” McGirt said.

It’s not clear when or whom Kovalev will fight next, but his promoter, Main Events, told Boxing Junkie last month that he will likely appear on a DAZN card. McGirt says he has not spoken to anybody from the promotional side about Kovalev’s move up in weight.

“I haven’t spoken to Kathy [Duva of Main Events], so I can’t put that lie out there,” he said.

Main Events did not respond to a request for comment.

Kovalev was recently sued by a woman he allegedly assaulted for non-payment of their agreed-upon settlement. The woman, Jamie Frontz, claims Kovalev punched her in the face and that she suffered a displaced disk in her back. The assault case is still pending.

Sergey Kovalev says he had to lose 35-plus pounds for Canelo Alvarez fight

Sergey Kovalev posted an Instagram Live video over the weekend complaining about his knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez on November 3.

Excuses? Explanations? You decide.

In an Instagram Live video posted recently, former light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev sounded off – in Russian – about his knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez on Nov. 2, claiming that the deck was stacked against him from the very start and that he did not have an ideal training camp.

Alvarez, moving up from middleweight, scored a vicious knockout of Kovalev in the 11th round to take Kovalev’s piece of the light heavyweight crown. For his trouble, Kovalev earned a reported $12 million payday, a portion of which went to co-promoters Top Rank and Main Events.

Kovalev’s spiel on a recent episode of the Everlast Talk Box podcast was translated. Here are four takeaways:

  • He entered entered training camp for the Alvarez fight weighing 211 pounds (96 kilograms), when he normally walks around at 190 pounds (86 kilograms).
  • There is no guarantee that he will return to the light heavyweight division, as he suffered from insomnia and loss of appetite as he was trying to make weight.
  • He admitted that he accepted the Alvarez fight for money and asserted that he didn’t have enough time to recover from his fight against Anthony Yarde in August. Kovalev stopped the Briton in the 11th round after nearly getting knocked out himself earlier in the fight.
  • And people who bet on him to win in an attempt to “get rich quick,” as opposed to his true fans, were “losers”