Revisiting his dream — and pain — boxing champ Sergey Kovalev returns to Russia

Sergey Kovalev lands a jab on Jean Pascal during the light heavyweight world championship match in Montreal in January. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)

 

Sergey Kovalev, a 'nasty guy' in the ring yet traumatized by tragedy


Sergey Kovalev in Russia for the defense of his light-heavyweight championships against Isaac Chilemba.  Kovalev to fight next Nov. 19  in a showdown with Andre Ward at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas.

The bout against the Chilemba was not remarkable.

Four-and-a-half years earlier, Kovalev had stopped Roman Simakov in the same Ekaterinburg arena in which he outpointed Chilemba. At the time, Kovalev and Simakov were both relatively unknown prospects.

Simakov, 27, was knocked unconscious and slipped into a coma. He never woke up.

The incident traumatized Kovalev and how he has maintained his menacing in-ring persona is a mystery Kovalev won’t talk about.   He won’t revisit the incident, which clearly remains a sensitive topic for him.

Kovalev has spoken publicly about the fight with Simakov only once, in an interview with Yahoo Sports.  He said that as he was pounding Simakov, he wondered why the referee didn’t stop the fight. When he learned of Simakov’s death, he said, “I was lost.”
 

Kovalev is a mentally strong person and that will allow him to deal with the pressure of all the hype around his fight with Andre Ward.



Source: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-sergey-kovalev-hernandez-20161109-story.html