BACK TO ‘KRUSHING’
After a turbulent period in Kovalev’s life, he returns to what he
Ringside report as Sergey Kovalev destroys Vyacheslav Shabranskyy
ONCE upon a time, before he laboured against Isaac Chilemba and before he suffered a controversial decision defeat to Andre Ward and an arguably controversial stoppage loss to Ward in a rematch,
Sergey Kovalev knocked opponents out – frequently rapidly and spectacularly. He returned to that devastating form against Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, battering his Ukrainian opponent, knocking him down three times and stopping him at 2-36 of the second round in an Hbo-televised main event at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
In the five months or so since his rematch loss to Ward, Kovalev, by his own admission and in roughly chronological order, spent time in his native Russia (including his home town of Chelyabinsk), drank a lot, steered a speeding car off the road and into some trees to avoid an onrushing vehicle (while suffering nothing worse than a bloody nose in the process), visited a monastery in Greece, returned to the United States, curtailed (but did not stop) his drinking, altered his diet, and hired a new trainer. While he was heavily favoured against Kiev-born Shabranskyy, who now lives in Los Angeles, there was a question mark hanging over Kovalev’s mental state in the wake of the Ward defeat and the turmoil in his life.
Shabranskyy was unable to answer that question, except to suggest that all is now well in Kovalev Land, where normal service was on its way to being resumed as soon as a glancing right hand dropped Shabranskyy in the opening frame. Another thudding right bent Shabranskyy over, where he remained, frozen in time and space, until a follow-up right, left and left put him down a second time. It was to Shabranskyy’s immense good fortune that, when he clawed himself to his feet, only 10 seconds remained in that opening frame, which he spent clinging on to Kovalev for dear life.
That only delayed his execution, however. Although Shabranskyy was game in the second, coming forward behind
solid combinations and even walking Kovalev into a counter left hook, the Russian remained calm and composed and the end was a matter of time. A series of rights dropped Shabranskyy to his knees and then another barrage had him reeling against the ropes, the New York State Athletic Commission physician bounding up the ring steps as trainer Manny Robles grabbed a towel of surrender, all beaten to it by referee Harvey Dock who stepped in to save Shabranskyy from further punishment.
“It is my goal to be the best in the division,” Kovalev said. “I am ready for any champion. Let’s do it. I’m ready.”
The first two rounds of the co-main event between Sullivan Barrera and
Felix Valera had it all, including mutual knockdowns in the opening frame, a bad cut and plenty of fierce exchanges. Unfortunately, the contest, such as it was, continued for eight more rounds afterward. Most of them were won by Barrera, who walked forward throwing combinations while Valera showboated and moved, and who had the advantage of seeing three – three! – points deducted in total from Valera for low blows, although Barrera himself had one taken away by referee Michael Ortega for the same reason in the ninth.
Barrera, originally of Cuba but now living in Miami, Florida, looked as if he might be in for a rough night early on when a double left hook, to body and head, dropped him. But even though he went down hard, he rose rapidly to his feet and immediately took the fight to Valera, from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. As the bell sounded to end the round, he dropped Valera with a right hand and left hook; and as the second round dawned, he was the one on the attack, although Valera opened up a cut over his left eye in the process.
The two men were firing combinations at each other in those early stages, and it was hard to believe that the fight would last the distance; but it thereafter devolved into an ugly affair. Barrera was the one who did most of the work, however, and the scores of 98-88 from Don Ackerman, 97-90 from Glen Feldman and 97-89 from Tom Schreck were accurate reflections of the scrappy action.
Seven months after being shockingly stopped by Robinson Castellanos,
Yuriorkis Gamboa stepped in for him as a late replacement to face Jason Sosa, and breathed some life into the dying embers of his career as he emerged with a majority decision win. The speed and power that defined his earlier years are now but a memory, however, and Gamboa, a Cuban émigré living in Miami, frequently looked just a punch or two away from being finished by Camden, New Jersey’s Sosa. Gamboa held often when Sosa was in close – a tactic that earned him multiple warnings and, ultimately, a point deduction from referee Ron Lipton - and suffered an official knockdown when his glove touched the canvas following a punch in the seventh. He still possessed enough guile, hand speed and ring generalship to frustrate Sosa for a number of rounds, however; even so, the general feeling ringside was that, especially with the knockdown and point deduction, Sosa had just done enough to win, and when the scores – 94-94 from Robin Taylor, 95-93 from John Mckaie and 96-92 from Don Trella – were read out, they were met by a cavalcade of boos in the arena.