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'Fighting Words' — The Self-Destruction of Sergey Kovalev - The Ring
‘FIGHTING WORDS’ — THE SELF-DESTRUCTION OF SERGEY KOVALEV
28
DEC
BY DAVID GREISMAN
As hard as it may now be to believe, there was a time when Sergey Kovalev was the hero of the light heavyweight division. He’s no hero anymore.
Not after all of his racist remarks and social media posts.
Not after he pleaded guilty to punching a woman and kicking her dog.
Not after he allegedly caused a disturbance on a plane and had to be removed before the flight took off.
Not after he was accused of driving under the influence of alcohol.
And not after the four losses in three years, three by way of knockout, took a fighter who had once been celebrated as one of the two best 175-pounders in the world and instead put him on the verge of being left behind.
It’s what happened inside the ring that has done Kovalev the most damage. But it’s what happens outside of the ring that may keep him from recovering.
Now, with the future of his career on the line, Kovalev has potentially sabotaged himself even further.
A fighter in Kovalev’s position needs an opportunity. That means he needs someone backing him — beyond his promoters, beyond his manager, beyond his trainers and team. He needs a network willing to pay to bring him back.
In one of the silliest ways possible, Kovalev has bitten the hand that feeds.
Kovalev is supposed to fight on DAZN about a month from now. He is scheduled to face Bektemir Melikuziev — an unbeaten prospect with a 6-0 record who won a silver medal in the 2016 olympics — on January 30 in Moscow.
The streaming service is willing to put money in Kovalev’s pockets. Kovalev, meanwhile, deprived DAZN of much-needed revenue.
It took place on Dec. 19, the night that DAZN aired its biggest show since the COVID-19 pandemic paused boxing, featuring Canelo Alvarez defeating Callum Smith to become the new king of the super middleweight division. DAZN has long sought to grow its subscriber base in the United States and bolster its bottom line.
Kovalev, in his infinite wisdom, decided it was a good idea to live-stream the fight on his Instagram account, according to a report by Mike Coppinger of The Athletic.
“At its peak, Kovalev’s Instagram Live stream attracted more than 2,500 viewers,” Coppinger reported. “That equals a potential loss for DAZN between $50,000 (monthly subscription) and $250,000 (annual). Of course, you can argue those watching Kovalev’s stream simply would have found another illegal way to watch or not viewed the bout at all.”
That’s not an argument that would sway the people who were about to put Kovalev back on the air.
“Executives at the streaming service, sources said, were alarmed and extremely frustrated by Kovalev’s brazen behavior,” Coppinger wrote.
Yarde at war with Kovalev. Photo by Valery Sharifulin-TASS via Getty-Images
Kovalev was fortunate to be able to get this comeback fight in the first place. When he signed to face Canelo in late 2019, Canelo’s then-promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, sweetened the deal by guaranteeing Kovalev a second payday. He was due to earn at least $2.5 million for the Melikuziev fight, according to the report.
Kovalev needs the win to stay relevant, for DAZN or another network to want to feature him again, for one of the other top names in the 175-pound division to be willing to face him, or for him to be anything other than a B-side opponent should that opportunity come calling.
He’s a long way removed from 2013, when he graduated from appearances on NBC Sports Network — shows run by his promoter, Main Events — to the increased publicity and increased paydays that came with being on HBO.
On that summer day seven years ago, Kovalev challenged Nathan Cleverly for a light heavyweight title in Cardiff, Wales, scoring two knockdowns in the third round and finishing the fight in the fourth. He also charmed boxing fans and observers by, well, feinting with a pelvic thrust before unleashing a three-punch combination.
HBO publicists in Atlantic City — there for a doubleheader later that day featuring Daniel Geale vs. Darren Barker and Jhonathan Romero vs. Kiko Martinez — shuffled a handful of boxing writers who’d arrived early into a room to watch Kovalev. The network remained just as eager to spotlight him over the next few years.
Kovalev made eight successful defenses on HBO, including a shutout victory over Bernard Hopkins that unified three world titles. He had power, making short work of second- and third-tier opponents, and picking up a pair of technical knockout victories over Jean Pascal. Kovalv wasn’t just blunt force either. He also had skill, boxing patiently and capably against Hopkins.
For much of this period, Kovalev was the hero. That’s largely because Adonis Stevenson had become the villain.
Stevenson was the lineal champion at 175. He’d beaten the man (Chad Dawson) who’d beaten the man (Bernard Hopkins) who’d beaten the man (Jean Pascal). Kovalev’s entry into the HBO fold came at a time when Stevenson was also featured on the network. But Stevenson signed with powerhouse boxing adviser Al Haymon in early 2014 and jumped to Showtime. When Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions launched in 2015, Stevenson appeared on PBC’s other affiliated channels as well, including CBS and Spike TV.
Boxing fans have conflicting interests. They want the best for fighters — for them to be compensated well and to eventually retire happy and healthy — but they also want the best fights. Many criticized Stevenson for avoiding Kovalev, for defending his championship against a series of lighter touches rather than make a deal to pit the two top light heavyweights against each other.
The rivalry lost its luster once Kovalev lost his mystique.
It wasn’t his first loss that did it — a hotly debated, closely contested unanimous decision defeat against Andre Ward in late 2016. It might not have even been the June 2017 rematch with Ward that caused it, an eighth-round TKO loss in which Kovalev was worn down by body shots, rocked badly by a right hand, and then stopped by a combination of blows that landed both above and below the belt.
It was Kovalev’s third loss, a surprising defeat to Eleider Alvarez in August 2018. Kovalev was ahead halfway through the fight but began to fade. Alvarez took advantage and sent Kovalev to the canvas three times in the seventh.
By that time, Stevenson had stepped up and fought Badou Jack to a draw. And then, by the end of the year, any ill feelings that fans had long held toward Stevenson quickly went away when he was knocked out by Oleksandr Gvozdyk and hospitalized with bleeding in his brain.
Boxing fans, after all, have conflicting interests. They want the best fights. But they also want the best for the fighters. It’s one thing to villainize a fighter within the context of sports. It’s another thing when a fighter is humanized, when the only important thing is hoping that he will survive, and then hoping that he will recover from the injuries that nearly killed him.
Kovalev began to rebuild in 2019. He started the year by outboxing Alvarez in a rematch, reclaiming a world title in the process. He defended it that August against Anthony Yarde, overcoming some difficult moments to stop his unbeaten but raw challenger. Then came Canelo, a quick turnaround just two months and a week after the Yarde outing. The temptation of a big fight and a big payday prevailed. So did Canelo, who wisely chopped away to Kovalev’s body and then felled him with a pair of huge head shots.
It was a loss to one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. That silver lining doesn’t cushion the blow too much when you’re 37 years old, and when you’re no longer one of the two or three main names in your division.
Although Kovalev is rated No. 3 by The Ring, that doesn’t necessarily portray his remaining relevancy. The 175-pound weight class is packed these days. There’s enough talent that Kovalev wouldn’t necessarily be the clear favorite, even against a few fighters who are currently lower on the list than him.
The two light heavyweights above him are Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Beterbiev became the new lineal champ and unified a pair of world titles by stopping Gvozdyk last year; Gvozdyk has since retired. DBivol has another of the title belts.
Below Kovalev is a batch of contenders and former titleholders. Pascal resuscitated his career after losses to Kovalev, Eleider Alvarez and Bivol, thanks to a pair of decisions over Marcus Browne and Badou Jack in 2019. Browne battered Jack about two years ago. Jack remains in the picture despite those defeats. Joe Smith seemed one-dimensional in a loss to Bivol last year but had a pair of notable triumphs in 2020, outpointing Jesse Hart and stopping Eleider Alvarez. Gilberto Ramirez has been spinning his wheels both while he held a title at 168 and since moving up to 175.
Almost every fighter loses eventually. Losses to other top fighters need not completely derail a career — look no further than a paragraph above to remember that Browne, Jack, Pascal and Smith still belong.
Two of Kovalev’s losses came against a Hall of Famer (Ward). Another was against a future Hall of Famer (Canelo). The other one was avenged (Eleider Alvarez). These defeats, however, can also be seen as a sign of decline, of struggles with discipline, of problems in camp, of both Kovalev the pugilist and Kovalev the person being in disarray.
After the Ward fights, Kovalev had a falling out with John David Jackson and parted ways with him. The trainer said Kovalev didn’t train the way he should have, while Kovalev said Jackson didn’t prepare him properly. He’s changed coaches twice since then and has been working with Buddy McGirt since before the Eleider Alvarez rematch.
In interviews, Kovalev has said many of the right things, admitting to mistakes he made with his diet, his hydration, his approach to training altogether.
“He learned how to make healthier eating choices, chew his food better and drink more water,” wrote Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated in late 2017, when Kovalev’s only losses had been to Andre Ward. “He says he bought in. He stopped drinking anything with sugar, cut out fried food, forsook alcohol and embraced a former enemy — vegetables.”
“I’m in the right way,” Kovalev told Thomas Gerbasi of BoxingScene.com in early 2018. “Already, all my mistakes have been deleted mentally from my head. Right now, I’ll just keep working and following my dream for my goal to make the big fights.”
It’s clear that he’s not as in control of his life — of the way he treats himself and others — as he’d otherwise indicated.
The arrest for allegedly driving while under the influence occurred this past February.
The incident on the plane was in July 2019: “A female passenger accused him of grabbing her hand and kissing her, throwing cash at her and making her feel unsafe,” according to a report at the time by Mike Coppinger. Kovalev also got into a shouting match with another man on the plane.
His criminal case, stemming from a June 2018 assault on a woman and her dog, only recently came to a close. Kovalev pleaded guilty two months ago and was sentenced to the time he’d already spent in jail, plus three years of probation. The allegations and aftermath were particularly disturbing. The victim accused Kovalev of getting angry after she turned down his advances, telling police that he kicked her dog and punched her in the face. She was left with lingering injuries that led to multiple surgeries.
Photo / @HBOboxing
