Sergey Kovalev makes his highly anticipated return to the ring this weekend, taking on Ukraine’s Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO world middleweight title in Madison Square Garden, New York. The IBA world Light Heavyweight title is also on the line.
Kovalev hasn’t fought since surrendering in his unified IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight title rematch with the now retired, former pound-for-pound king, Andre Ward.
Kovalev’s promoter, the renown Kathy Duva has shared her bold assertion that Kovalev still remains the standout fighter in the light heavyweight division. Despite the arrival of fighters such as IBF champion Artur Beterbiev and WBA champion Dmitry Bivol on the world stage.
“We started out in the beginning with him and he was nobody,” Duva, Main Events’ CEO, told BoxingScene.com.
“We had to fight everybody and we had to go to everybody’s hometown to fight everybody.”
Duva expanded by explaining “We had to go to [Wales] to fight [Nathan] Cleverly, we had to go to Canada to fight [Jean] Pascal and near Philly to fight [Bernard] Hopkins [in Atlantic City], out West to go fight Ward [in Las Vegas].”
#KovalevShabranskyy#krusher#крашер#kovalev#ковалевpic.twitter.com/BSUhkxnm3a
— Sergei Kovalev (@KrusherKovalev) November 9, 2017
“Sergey was the guy who was nobody, who was coming up and trying to make something of himself” Duva reflected.
“Now, after all, that’s happened, what happened in those Ward fights didn’t change the fact that, at this moment, Sergey is the top man in his division.”
“He’s the man to beat. Clearly, he’s gotta win the fight on Saturday to kind of put a stamp on that. But that is really the position he’s in right now.”
“I don’t think that those are the kinds of losses that diminish you,” Duva said. “One was clearly not even a loss. The other one was questionable at best in the stoppage against, again, the best fighter in the world.”
“Close losses to that guy don’t put you that far behind him. And the fact is, at this moment in the division, there’s no one else [other than Kovalev] that you’d have to say everyone else has to go through to prove he’s the best.”
“Stevenson is irrelevant and no one is gonna claim that Beterbiev or Bivol is the man in the division unless they beat Sergey Kovalev. So he’s in a good position. He’s positioned really well right now and we’re extremely happy about it,” Duva concluded.
Warmed and ready to go to #NYC for #KovalevShabranskyy 🥊
Picture by David Spagnollo#крашер#krusher#Ковалев#kovalevpic.twitter.com/YTHvqSqGRB— Sergei Kovalev (@KrusherKovalev) November 20, 2017
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