Kovalev vs Chilemba Results From Russia (spoiler)

Kovalev vs Chilemba Results – This afternoon in Ekaterinburg, Russia WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev returned to his home country to defend his belts against Isaac Chilemba. The bout is set to air on HBO in the United States via tape delay starting at 10:15 eastern standard time. If you are interested in seeing the match and do not want to know the outcome, read no further.

Kovalev vs Chilemba is the first of a series of matches on HBO that culminate with the Sergey Kovalev versus Andre Ward bout scheduled for November 19th. Next up for HBO is the August 6th broadcast from Oakland where Andre Ward fights  Columbia’s Alexander Brand (25-1) in his interim bout to the highly anticipated November “super fight” on HBO pay-per-view.

Kovalev vs Chilemba Results

Kovalev entered the fight a prohibitive betting favorite, over -10,000 at some of the sports books. Chilemba (24-3-2) had experienced success against fighters from Russia throughout his career, but this was his first trip to Russia. Kovalev is one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world for a reason, and while he did his job in efficient fashion against Chilemba — he was never in danger — his performance was disappointing to his fans as he failed to deliver another knockout. The rugged Chilemba was outboxed throughout the fight and knocked to the canvas in round seven, but to his credit he got up and made it to the final bell. Afterward, the Russian stoically stated he now waits for Ward.

In the end, the judges had the fight for Kovalev via scores of  118-109, 117-110, 116-111. Kovalev ‘s professional record now stands at 30-0-1 with 26 KOs. Heading into the fight, he was  ranked #2 overall on the pound-for-pound list by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. That rating may decline.