Looking to leave no doubt
After controversial win for Ward, rematch should settle the score
It’s a good thing that the fight is Saturday night, because Sergey Kovalev can’t wait any longer for another shot at Andre Ward.
“I went over all my past mistakes, and I’m very excited,” Kovalev said. “I don’t have any more patience remaining left. I just want to kick Ward’s ass.”
Oakland’s Ward, meanwhile, just wants to keep the party going. His friend, Kevin Durant, and most of the Warriors will be ringside at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, two days after the team’s championship parade in Oakland.
Kovalev doesn’t need to look to others for help like LeBron James did against Golden State. He knocked Ward down in the first light heavyweight title match in November, and now he wants to knock him out. The
Russian — and many ringside observers — were surprised that Kovalev lost the first fight. All three judges scored it 114113 after a furious rally late by Ward.
“We’re going to shut the door on this,” Ward, 33, said, “and take all doubt and all questions off the table.”
The former super middleweight champ, Ward is unbeaten in 31 fights; Kovalev is 30-1-1. Their first fight was the biggest of Ward’s career — his first on pay-per-view and first in Las Vegas — and he feels he has a lot more to show boxing fans.
“I am planning to put on a show . ... A lot of people talk about his jab and the right hand,” Ward said. “but if you look at the second part of the fight, he wasn’t landing right hands and jabs. He had a good moment, and he’s a really great fighter — I’m not taking anything away from him. That’s why I want to face the best, to be the best.
“Some people thought I won, some people thought I lost. So let’s do it again. That’s the beauty of rematches in this sport.”
Kovalev, 34, has been angry for months and has been wearing a hat emblazoned with “WAR” during the buildup to Saturday’s fight. He’s dealt with accusations that some of his social media posts have been racist, with financial negotiation difficulties, with rumors that his trainer was going to leave for Ward’s camp, and with Ward saying he gifted Kovalev a rematch (it was mandated in the contract for the first fight).
“He will pay for everything,” Kovalev said. “I promise you.”
Kovalev not only thinks he won the first fight because of the second-round knockdown and winning the first five or six rounds, but he also has an excuse for his late fade that fight.
“I was empty one month before the November fight,” he said. “Ward fought an empty Kovalev. This time I will not be empty — Ward will be fighting Krusher. I had pushed myself so hard in the beginning of training camp that one month out I was empty.”
He said he has been working with a Russian Olympic biathlon coach.
“He’s had every excuse in the book, and has been talking nonstop since the first fight,” Ward said. “My right and my left are going to do my talking for me.”
Ward’s trainer, Virgil Hunter, hopes Kovalev is better. He said Ward has improved and that the two of them have worked to avoid another slow start for the counter-puncher.
“We respect Kovalev on what he has done and what he’s capable of doing,” Hunter said. “And it’s a healthy respect, but it’s not a respect that’s going to stop him from getting smashed June 17.”
While Ward will make $6.5 million in the fight, Kovalev has agreed to fight for a percentage of the tickets and payper-view money instead of a purse.
Ward is promoted by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports, which paid him a $5 million guarantee for the first fight; Kovalev made $2 million.
“He’s getting paid by one guy, who for some reason is willing to put out extraordinary amounts of money to watch him fight,” said Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva. “Good for him.”