Top light heavyweight and WBO titleholder Sergey Kovalev makes stop two on his post-Andre Ward recovery tour this weekend when he defends against fellow Russian Igor Mikhalkin on HBO. That’s not a particularly great fight, but thankfully Dmitry Bivol’s WBA title defense against Sullian Barrera certainly is in the co-main event.
Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev (31-2-1, 27 KOs) is a well known commodity at this point. The 34 year old Russian has been knocking his opponents out one at a time on HBO since 2013. That night he met and Krushed fellow unbeaten prospect Nathan Cleverly, turning what was supposed to be a competitive matchup into a rout in a hurry. Sergey went on to win eight more on the network in a row, collecting three of the four belts along the way.
His most prominent wins during that run were dominant showings in a stoppage over Jean Pascal and then a wide decision over Bernard Hopkins. Pascal was riding high off from his one sided win in an all Montreal showdown with Lucian Bute going into that fight while B-Hop was still on his schitck of being an ageless wonder, an alien. Granted, Pascal had been exposed before and Hopkins was rapidly closing in on fifty, but the division wasn’t really offering anything else. The fight Kovalev and everyone else wanted was a matchup with WBC titleholder Adonis Stevenson, but the Stevenson camp has never really been interested in challenging fights since winning the belt.
Andre Ward made everyone forget about that, however. When the long time pound for pound elite announced he was moving to light heavyweight and eventually fighting Sergey Kovalev, there was some real buzz amongst boxing purists. This was a fight we all had to see. Unfortunately the card was promoted terribly and never registered with the more casual side of the audience, but the fight itself delivered at least. Kovalev hurt and dropped Ward early, controlling the first half of the fight. Andre Ward and his amazing ring IQ adjusted to largely control the second half. In the end the Oakland fighter got the decision. I had no problem with it, but many still scream robbery to this day.
The second fight between the men gave a better sense of closure, but still not a pure one. The two of them fought on even terms for seven rounds before Ward landed the best single shot of his career, a monstrous right hand that clearly hurt Sergey Kovalev. Ward swarmed with a body-centric attack looking for the finish. He got it when he hunched Kovalev over defenseless, but the same contingent loudly proclaiming a robbery will tell you that those shots were low and illegal. I thought they were borderline.
What wasn’t borderline was the luster knocked off Sergey Kovalev’s shine following the two losses. I think that is unfortunate. In my view, Andre Ward is absolutely one of the best fighters of the last twenty years. His resume at super middleweight was unreal and the Kovalev fights at light heavyweight are the cherry on top. So yes, Kovalev lost to him twice and I think both results are fair, but beyond that he fought basically even with Andre Ward for twenty rounds. Because the division was weak and Stevenson uninterested, the Russian destroyer sunk subpar competition during his rise to fame. He didn’t duck anyone, but there was no one to fight at a real high level until Ward. I find more legitimacy in the extremely competitive Ward losses for Sergey Kovalev than I do in wins over the likes of Nadjib Mohammedi or Blake Caparello.
In November, The Krusher krushed defensively liable Ukrainian fringe contender Vyacheslav Shabranskyy to win back a Ward vacated belt and announce his return to the sport. Now he has a fellow Russian in Igor Mikalhkin (21-1, 9 KOs) in front of him come Saturday night. Who is Igor Milkalkin? He is a fine fighter and a good one at European level. Yet, he has no world level wins and has not consistently dominated at his regional level. He’s here to fall over and he will.
Sergey Kovalev is a great fighter, but he is not in a great fight Saturday night. Thankfully, the undercard redeems the main event mismatch and then some. WBA titleholder Dmitry Bivol (12-0, 10 KOs) has been considered a super prospect for some time now. The 27 year old is hyper talented with a great amateur pedigree to match. Given that he was still a professional novice with so few fights, his quick and dominant destructions of solid pros in Cedric Agnew and Samuel Clarkson last year were quite impressive. It should be noted that his title win over Trent Broadhurst was a gift wrapped belt from the sanctioning body, however, as Broadhurst did not belong in that ring.
Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 14 KOs) certainly does. When the Cuban first emerged into the boxing public’s eye, he was Andre Ward’s debut opponent at light heavyweight. The all time great comfortably outpointed him in a win that seemed routine at the time. Barrera came back with a thrilling knockout win over Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, then an unbeaten and highly touted prospect. That was a good win, but it was two fights later against rising light heavyweight star power puncher Joe Smith Jr that sealed his reputation shift to a real top contender. Barrera went in a slight underdog, survived a big first round knockdown, and then proceeded to absolutely rout his overmatched foe the rest of the way. Last time out, Barrera comfortably beat Felix Valera in November.
Sergey Kovalev will batter and most likely stop Igor Mikhalkin. I have no idea what is going to happen between Dmitry Bivol and Sullivan Barrera. If forced to pick, I like Bivol’s youth and likely slightly superior athletcisim, but his Cuban foe’s slickness in there could be a real problem given his lack of experience. Really, I feel like I am the true winner here for getting to watch this one play out at all.
HBO will have the show at 10 PM Eastern. Unfortunately, that probably means Barrera v Bivol will conflict with Showtime’s much bigger heavyweight title fight, but that is what DVRs are for. No excuses, fight fans.
