Is Kovalev Still What He Was, or is He No Longer Who He Used to Be?

At some point in every highly successful boxer’s professional life, there is a subtle, sometimes imperceptible change where he begins to stop being who he had been and transitions into a lesser version of himself. The change can be purely physical, the result of advancing age and the natural laws of diminishing returns, or it might owe more to the mental aspects of a harsh and demanding sport. A fighter whose laser-intense focus had helped push him to greatness can become too rich, too comfortable or too disinterested to re-ignite that inner furnace and maintain it at high flame.

Now 35, an age which boxing history suggests often marks the crossover from glorious prime to gradual or even rapid descent, WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) could be fighting as much to defeat the theory that he has already, or soon will, begin that inevitable downhill slide as to defeat Colombian-born, Montreal-based challenger Eleider Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs) when they square off in the HBO-televised main event Saturday night at the lavishly refurbished Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City. The Hard Rock recently underwent a $500 million makeover from its previous incarnation as the Trump Taj Mahal, and Kovalev-Alvarez – the principals’ respective nicknames, “Krusher” and “Storm,” sound like a showdown of Marvel Comics superheroes – marks the first major fight in the seashore resort town since, ironically, Kovalev scored a wide unanimous decision over nearly 50-year-old Bernard Hopkins on Nov. 8, 2014.

The co-featured bout also is for a 175-pound world championship strap, with Dmitry Bivol (13-0, 11 KOs) defending his WBA title against Isaac Chilemba (25-5-2, 10 KOs). Not that anything is certain, but there are signs that the winners could be paired in a bout that would unify two of the titles in a division currently splintered into four realms.

“I don’t feel that I am old,” Kovalev said when asked if fans can still expect to see the best of him not only in the here and now, but for the foreseeable future. “It’s (35) just a number to me. I’ll be fighting ’til I get all four titles. It’s my goal and when I (achieve) this goal I am done.”

Kathy Duva, Main Events’ CEO, has other fighters in her promotional stable, but in recent years there has always been someone who qualified as the indisputable lead pony. Once that distinction was held by Poland’s Tomasz Adamek until he entered his decline stage and gave way to Kovalev, the once-unheralded Russian who forced his way into widespread public consciousness with a series of devastating knockouts and a mean streak capable of impressing Vladimir Putin. When “Krusher” flattened opponents as if he were stomping on an empty beer can, his displays of raw power were almost always served up with a side order of mercilessness. He was the living, breathing embodiment of the movies’ Ivan Drago, the remorseless Russian wrecking machine disdainful of the lethal damage he had just inflicted upon Apollo Creed.

But the first crack in the image of Kovalev the invincible came when he lost a close and disputed unanimous decision, along with his WBO, IBF and WBA titles, to Andre Ward on Nov. 19, 2016. Kovalev, who faded down the stretch, believed he had banked enough early rounds to get the victory, and his claims carried some credence as all three official scorecards had him down by razor-thin 114-113 margins. If two of the judges had awarded just one more round to Kovalev against Ward, who was widely considered to be among the top two or three best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet, he would have retained his trio of bejeweled belts on a split decision.

The hairline crack widened, however, in the rematch on June 17, 2017. Amid rumors – which proved to be correct – of tension between Kovalev and his trainer, John David Jackson, Kovalev fell victim to Ward’s intense body attack and was stopped in eight rounds. Although he was effective in spots, ahead by one point on two judges’ cards and down by three on the other at the time of the TKO, he loudly complained of low blows from Ward that went unpenalized by referee Tony Weeks. For Kovalev to issue excuses, even those that might have been somewhat justified, was akin to Attila the Hun objecting to unfair tactics by the Romans, whom he was unable to defeat in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451.

After the failed rematch with Ward, who subsequently retired, the bad blood between Kovalev and Jackson spilled out in a two-way verbal hemorrhage in which each party disparaged the other in a manner that was reminiscent of the vilest exchanges in Muhammad Ali’s running feud with Joe Frazier.

“Sergey started making money, getting big-headed, and he didn’t want to train hard anymore,” Jackson said in September 2017. “Every camp was worse and worse. I was doing some body work on Sergey and I made him fold up. I’m 54 years old and he couldn’t take it. I told Don (Turner) that if Ward can get inside and withstand his early shots, then Sergey is in trouble. And that is what happened.

“Sergey is blaming me for the loss, but let me tell you this: You can’t blame me for your loss when you quit. He quit! This guy is a complete dick.”

So, which Sergey Kovalev shows up against Alvarez? Will it be the assassin who scared the hell out of a pre-Ward succession of opponents before leaving them crumpled and quivering on the canvas? Or is it the one imagined by an embittered Jackson, a bully who turned out to have feet of clay when those feet were finally put to the fire? It’s difficult to determine based on Kovalev’s two fights with Jackson’s replacement as his trainer, Uzbekistan’s Abror Tursunpulatov, with whom Kovalev claims to have a better rapport since he also speaks Russian, making for fewer communications issues in training camp and in the corner on fight night.

Although Kovalev reportedly spent time in a Greek monastery following the rematch loss to Ward, the better to clear his head, his by-the-numbers stoppages of Igor Mikhalkin and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy were against rivals who were no match for even a discounted version of the old Krusher. Alvarez, a technically proficient if comparatively soft-punching opponent, had been the mandatory opponent to WBC champ Adonis Stevenson for over two years until he tired of playing the waiting game and accepted the opportunity for a title shot at Kovalev. Based on all available data, Alvarez figures to provide a sterner test than Mikhalkin or Shabranskyy did.

If Kovalev is to be believed, the path to his eventual retirement is still a long and winding road. Maybe what’s next, should he get past Alvarez, is a two-belt battle with Bivol, who is with Groupe Yvon Michel and World Boxing. That certainly would be an intriguing matchup. Other targets in Kovalev’s quest for full unification are IBF champion Artur Beterbiev (12-0, 12 KOs) and Stevenson (29-1-1, 24 KOs), a fight that not so very long ago was among the most anticipated in boxing but now seems a distant dream. Stevenson is 40, facing his own boundary whose crossing would signal the end of an era. Some fights sit on the back burner way too long, and if you don’t think so consider the tepid, warmed-up serving up of Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao.

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