Sergey Kovalev In-Depth: Andre Ward Rivalry, Canelo, Beterbiev-Bivol & Ambitions

Sergey Kovalev In-Depth | Sergey Kovalev speaks to Boxing News' Andi Purewal ahead of his ring return on Saturday night. Kovalev discusses his rivalry with Andre Ward, his loss to Canelo, remaining ambitions, Beterbiev-Bivol and much more.
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00:00 - 00:14: Sergey Kovalev intro
00:15 - 00:52: Return on Saturday night
00:53 - 01:44: Nobody wants to fight him
01:45 - 02:01: Difficult to think about retirement?
02:02 - 03:25: Ambitions at cruiserweight
03:26 - 05:06: Reveals struggles to make 175lbs
05:07 - 06:23: Robin Sirwan Safar fight
06:24 - 07:24: Cruiserweight division at the moment
07:25 - 08:08: Watching Opetaia vs Briedis 2
08:09 - 09:52: Darnell Boone was toughest fight of his career
09:53 - 10:53: Most nervous against Canelo
10:54 - 13:27: Reflects on Canelo fight and experience
13:28 - 14:14: Dmitry Bivol performance vs Canelo
14:15 - 14:58: Beterbiev vs Bivol
14:59 - 19:09: Andre Ward rivalry
19:10 - 22:32: Fury vs Usyk
22:33 - 22:53: John Fury headbutt
22:54 - 23:11: Sergey Kovalev final message
23:12 - 23:15: Sergey Kovalev outro
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[@boxingnews__]

What's your favourite memory of Sergey Kovalev? 🤔👇

[@JD-re3cj]

The hip thrust attack against Cleverly

[@hughhubbard8407]

His win against Bernard Hopkins

[@theboxingbookreview8044]

Knocking dudes down with jabs. Long live the Krusher.

[@user-tb9zn4vz8r]

The Canelo KO...I'm not a fan of Sergey.

[@denisf.5666]

The ass whoopin he gave to jean pascal

[@jonathanlatimer8127]

Robbed in the first Ward fight

[@michaelhill2300]

Nope, very close fight

[@shahjaa4944]

Ribbed 💯

[@JD-re3cj]

Robbed on the second one too they were such obvious low blows

[@alco2758]

​@@michaelhill2300it was close, but Kovalev clearly won

[@Factsoverfeels8]

Andre low blows Ward

[@BL.13217]

Kovalev was a supersonic fighter around that 2011-2015 mark. People forget how good he was.

[@abb7118]

Great interview, especially him conducting it in English 👏

[@zhuangcorp]

Kovalev was one of my favorites along with GGG. But after the 1st Ward fight it seemed like he never had the stamina to keep up his work rate.

[@hashim442786]

I can see Turki Alal Sheikh pitting him in future fights with Beterbiev/Opetia/Bivol, all of which I don’t mind watching. Prime Sergey was a gem

[@andresmolina5474]

He is not the same anymore, he should fight at his level now. I wish I wrong cuz Kova once could compite 50-50 with those men but he is not at that level anymore.

[@desanctisapostata]

I would prefer Kovalev vs Zurdo or Kovalev vs Smith for a last title shot tbh

[@powpow9560]

All 3 would kill him, stop it

[@bandadoc5715]

@@powpow9560 kathy duva offered beterbiev a fight with kovalev when kovalev had a title ..... the fight was going to be in russia , it would have been huge ...... beterbiev turned it down.........

[@jose-Maki]

Won ward 1 and ward 2 was ward landing low blows. He was the A side and got done 2 times. Only a certain race thinks ward won and the rest of the world thinks kovalev won showing what's what

[@gezparks9630]

He clearly outperformed Ward in their first fight and their second fight was just bizarre. Great champion.

[@mcape441]

Great Interview, Interviewer let Kovalev speak, and all done in English, well done Sergey.👍🥊🥊

[@Kugann]

mad how boxing works, 2017 he was in the top 5 p4p with Ward and one of the biggest names and best fighters, he then lost his 2 defining fights, controversial or not, then 7 years on he's fighting a nobody on an undercard after losing more fights than he should have, and no one really talks about him now, i genuinely forgot he was on this card.

[@knockout4121]

He is fighting a prospect! A nobody? Is he a nobody because he is not famous yet? Trying to understand your logic here… Kovalev is underdog in this fight

[@Kugann]

@@knockout4121 i’m talking about Kovalev being a top 5 p4p and now being used as an opponent for an unknown prospect

[@knockout4121]

@@KugannUnderstand. But its normal. And if Kov gets the w, all of a sudden he is relevant again

[@Geraldo-ro9rc]

We all saw him beat ward

[@alco2758]

It's even worse than that - he pretty much lost all the money he made on boxing. A lot of "friends" took advantage of him and now he's almost broke

[@user-qb1ok7wy9m]

One of my best fighters ever

[@denisf.5666]

Kovalev was one of the best light heavyweights ever in his prime. His jab alone sent people to the canvas. Unfortunately, he got screwed over in the two Ward fights and couldn't build on his previous performance after that

[@user-uu7yq8bs6e]

Great interview

[@marccreation1052]

He won that first Ward fight. If he quit the booze he might still pull off some good fights.

[@Krusher_1970]

So true. And it's a shame how he screwed his career up by that vice.

[@ViktorM1]

Dude got robbed in both Ward fights

[@Dimka2012Bo]

Yea that’s bllsht Kovalev quits every time the fright doesn’t go his way.

[@ViktorM1]

@@Dimka2012Bo first fight was close tho but the second fight was bs. Low blows and referee stopped the fight

[@jorgesanchez3084]

It wasn't canelo's fault they had to wait on the UFC fights. Canelo was upset too.

[@jermainebrown9827]

This guy should have a t-shirt made saying out of energy 😂 Excuse for all his losses

[@alexandruvlas252]

Exactly.

[@LimerickR266]

Great fighter in his prime. Thought he did enough to win that first fight against Ward.

[@sebastian5132]

The way he said - "Kick his ass" 😂

[@michaelhill2300]

I have a feeling Aergey let himself go and was probably around 16 stone when he agreed this event, he was originally announced as a Cruiserweight bout now it’s back at light heavyweight

[@davegonnaway6007]

He was the best around at his peak but the powers wanted the second best ward to be...

[@JD-re3cj]

Team Cleno did this man dirty. Everything was rigged against Kovalev

[@Av-fn5wx]

That’s what they always do

[@israelsosa1778]

Look up the reason behind the UFC delay... It was not Canelos team.

[@Kugann]

what happened

[@user-ct1ov7sh5s]

That was a sparring session

[@bandadoc5715]

@@user-ct1ov7sh5s kovalev is lucky that right hand didn't kill him.......

[@hughhubbard8407]

Will Buddy McGirt be training KRUSHER for this fight?

[@brolickscholar3083]

She tried to blackmail Kovalev. Why’re you out here talking about things that you don’t know about?

[@user-uk2dn9ly6x]

Kovalev🥇 Серега, привет из Украины💪

[@abb7118]

Beat ward in the first fight.

[@rickisunak]

Good interview as always Andi lad but you do need some different synonyms for words, especially with non-native speakers and your accent 😂.

[@franciscotaveras8392]

If you had respected yourself and the title, you would have defended it under your terms. You handed your fight and your title for money. No other reason. Canelo didn't deserve the light championship because he is too small. You hurt yourself and boxing. Because of it boxing suffered. Now you need money and you're coming back. Nobody cares whether you win or lose anymore, you sold out!

[@Geraldo-ro9rc]

Canelo had to drain him completely and wait him out, thats the only way canelo fights anyone tough

[@arturomunoz6898]

he fought bivol with no clauses so ??? bivol came in near 200lbs

[@Geraldo-ro9rc]

@@arturomunoz6898 Thats why he lost, they thought bivol was a nobody.

[@arturomunoz6898]

@@Geraldo-ro9rc umm no the fans did which why they were calling cherry pick for not going after beterbiev first , i actually had a bet on bivol beating canelo. canelo said in many interviews that he thinks bivol was the best out of 175 so ?? he seems to not be wrong cause now everyone sees bivol as this beast which he is but not leading up to the fight calling canelos words a bluff make it make sense

[@Geraldo-ro9rc]

@@arturomunoz6898 No thats not true. Everyone was calling Bivol a cherry pick because he didnt look that impressive before.

[@sly_tendencies87]

All Sergey has to do is imagine the man he's fighting is a woman. Knockout every time.

[@sainy375]

You just got crushed krusher retire before you get smashed to bits. 😢

[@box228]

Canelo has always been a fraud. He weight drained kovalev and was still getting beat up

[@bee3148]

Son of ward

[@Theboss-tb9nh]

Ward is a bum lost the first fight and had to cheat in the second fight

[@denisf.5666]

U mean Son of Judges and in 2nd fight Ward was the son of Tony weeks

[@Shadow-92932]

Canelo wouldn't of dared of fought a hydrated Kovalev he would of won similar fashion to Bivol

[@desanctisapostata]

Canelo might be the most hated fighter ever. According to some fans, literally has never won a single fight legit. There's always something people bring up

[@knockout4121]

I found it strange that Canelo beat him

[@Shadow-92932]

@@desanctisapostata Of course he has but they way he set up Kovalev to a rehydration clause forced him to be not 100% so he could maximise his advantage of taking the belts listen to kovalev about it Canelo looks for the advantage any way he can and when he couldn't against Bivol he got destroyed both similar fighter aswell plus Kov was beating him until the stoppage even with the hydration clause 100% Kov it would of gone exactly the same as Bivol UD head boxed off and im a Canelo fan btw great fighter

[@desanctisapostata]

@@Shadow-92932 I don't agree because you seem partial

[@user-ct1ov7sh5s]

@@desanctisapostatathe extent people will go to defend their fighters is hilarious. Kovalev was completely not himself for the Canelo fight. It’s really undeniable