Check. Plenty of knockouts? Check.
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It’s probably best for Nadjib Mohammedi and his family to avoid scouring boxing websites for the time being, because no pundit or fan is giving the Frenchman a remote chance of upsetting IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev this Saturday.
Any fighter could go by the nickname of “Krusher”. “I feel good”.
Part of it has to do, no doubt, with the opponent.
Now, as he prepares for his biggest fight to-date, and first in Las Vegas, his sponsors have told NSSF that HBO is demanding Kovalev remove the logo of Tulammo USA, a Round Rock, Texas-based ammo manufacturing company, from his boxing trunks.
Little is known about Nadjib Mohammedi, and after victories over Bernard Hopkins and Jean Pascal in his last two fights, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see Kovalev struggle to get up for a letdown fight.
Four of the six bouts have exceeded 1 million viewers, including an astonishingly high 1.254 million for a preliminary bout with Ismayl Sillakh.
The massive Russian is now the undefeated, unified WBA, IBF, and WBO light heavyweight champion of the world. The broadcasting company may have also listened to some of the scathing criticism it received on social media.
First Kovalev will have to dispose of Mohammedi, which most think won’t take long, before setting his sights on a possible Ward bout.
Sadly, though, fans won’t get Kovalev-Stevenson now or, more than likely, ever.
Ah, the politics of boxing. Would they dare censor their content for political reasons?
Though the Duva-Haymon relationship is toxic, it wouldn’t matter if exclusive long-term television deals didn’t exist.
“For me this fight is finished by knockout, for me or for him”. We are looking for one of the best fights in the light heavyweight division.
With Stevenson off limits, there are no great options that would guarantee a crowd and boost Kovalev’s profile.
“He (Sanchez) has a lot of experience, a different vision, he has a Mexican style and he has a lot of, lot of best fighter(s)”. I think between the fighters in the light heavyweight division and guys at 168 that are going to moving up there will be no shortage of opponents for Sergey.
“We’ve been talking to Ward’s people all week”, Duva said. “He knows his talent and his mistakes”, Mohammedi said.
Andre Ward, right, landing a punch in a win over Paul Smith in June, is perhaps the world’s best boxer. Sergey wants to fight the best.
Duva is hopeful that, before long, there will be a crop of big-name opponents for Kovalev.
And presuming he gets past a mandatory defense against top-ranked IBF contender Nadjib Mohammedi on Saturday in Las Vegas, Kovalev’s plan is to keep facing all comers, whether that means Stevenson or not. Oddly enough, Dudchenko was the one getting some degree of hype before he fought Mohammedi; as it turned out, Mohammedi proved to be the vastly superior fighter.
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BoxNation is proud to support Fight for Peace, a charity that uses boxing and martial arts combined with education and personal development to realise the potential of young people in communities that suffer from crime and violence. “Hell, [Roberto] Duran was a lightweight and he fought Hagler. At the end of the day, the guy that nobody expects to win is always the unsafe guy”. That fight has been talked about quite a bit over the last year-plus, but despite there being differences in promoters, networks, and whatnot, Sergey still believes it’s Stevenson himself who is avoiding the fight.
