By Jeremy Wall
Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) defeated France’s Nadjib Mohammedi (37-4, 23 KOs) by knockout at 2:38 of the third round to retain his IBF Light-Heavyweight title on Saturday, July 25th. Kovalev also holds the WBA and WBO Light-Heavyweight titles, which weren’t on the line. The fight took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and aired on HBO and included a co-main event featuring Jean Pascal (30-3-1, 17 KOs) defeating Cuba’s Yunieski Gonzalez (16-1, 12 KOs) by a controversial unanimous decision after ten rounds. The fights were co-promoted by Main Events and Interbox.
Kovalev won all three rounds in a total mismatch. There was an element of a grudge match to this bout as Mohammedi’s trainer Abel Sanchez is the former trainer of Kovalev and had a bad falling out with Kovalev. Kovalev now trains with John David Jackson.
In the second round, Kovalev, 32, dropped Mohammedi, 30, with a combination of punches including a big right hand. When Kovalev knocked Mohammedi down in the second, he waved his gloves for Mohammedi to get back up.
“I told him to stand up. It’s like a short show. People know they didn’t see boxing. It was just the one round. It was a small fight. I wanted to continue and I tried to continue to make this a longer fight,” said Kovalev during his post-fight interview.
Kovalev then finished Mohammedi in the third with a right hook followed by a left jab. Mohammedi immediately collapsed and was holding his left eye, which appeared injured. He was taken to a local hospital to have his eye checked and did not appear at the post-fight presser.
Kovalev landed 47-percent of his power punches, landing 32 jabs in total and 35 power punches, according to CompuBox. Kovalev landed 67 of 170 punches for 39-percent. Mohammedi only landed 17 punches of 96 punches for 18-percent. Kovalev landed 35 of 74 power punches for 47-percent and Mohammedi landed only 6 of 24 power punches for 25-percent.
Mohammedi was the mandatory challenger for Kovalev’s IBF title. Despite Mohammedi’s mandatory challenger status, no one gave Mohammedi a chance against Kovalev, even though Mohammedi was going into the bout riding a thirteen-fight winning streak, was ranked number two by the WBA and number one by the IBF at light-heavyweight.
Last year, Adonis Stevenson beat Dmitry Sukhotsky. Adonis, Kovalev’s rival to the claim of being the best light-heavyweight in the world, was heavily criticized for taking that fight with the feeling that Sukhotsky was nowhere near Adonis’s league. Sukhotsky, however, stopped Mohammedi in the second round of their fight in October 2011 in St. Petersburg. So, the feeling was that Mohammedi was even further below Kovalev’s league than Sukhotsky was in comparison to Adonis.
Kovalev earned $750,000 and Mohammedi earned $270,000. Kovalev also earned additional income from a TV deal in Russia.
The fight drew poorly in Las Vegas. Attendance was 4,351. It was Kovalev’s second time fighting in Las Vegas and first time headlining in the city. His last appearance in Vegas was on July 29th, 2011, when he stopped Douglas Okola in the second round at The Cosmopolitan. This was Pascal’s first time fighting in Las Vegas. Kovalev was also figured to fustigate Mohammedi, so the interest in this fight was low because Kovalev was fighting an easier opponent.
In the co-main, Jean Pascal, 32, beat Yunieski Gonzalez, 30, by a unanimous decision after ten rounds on three straight scores of 96-94. The decision was controversial as many boxing pundits had the fight scored for Gonzalez. Kovalev landed 154 of 397 punches for 39-percenet and Gonzalez landed 163 of 632 punches for 26-percent.
The punching stats didn’t tell the entire story, though. It was an exciting fight with Gonzalez coming out hard starting with the first round. It was an all-action fight all the way to the ninth round, when both fighters started to gas out. They came back hard in the tenth.
Although Gonzalez doesn’t have much of a name, he is considered a legitimate contender and was not an easy out for Pascal. Pascal went to the hospital after the fight to have his right hand examined. He injured it in the third round.
“I was never in trouble,” Pascal said in his post-fight interview. “I was controlling the fight. The fight followed the rhythm exactly as I wanted.”
Gonzalez wept when the decision was read. “When I heard unanimous decision, I absolutely thought I won the fight,” Gonzalez said in his post-fight interview. “Had it been a split decision or something, I would’ve been worried.”
It was a close, exciting fight that could reasonably lead to a rematch, depending on what plans are regarding a rematch between Kovalev and Pascal. Kovalev knocked out Pascal on March 14th at the Bell Centre in Montreal in one of the best fights this year. There were some that felt the eighth round knockout against Pascal was unfair with referee Luis Pabon calling the fight while Pascal still looked ready to go, as Pascal was still standing when Pabon stepped in and stopped the fight. They were put together in separate fights on Saturday night’s card with the idea of doing a rematch if both won. A rematch between the two would do well on HBO, but more so would draw a tremendous gate at the Bell Centre.
The HBO fights went up against a PBC show on NBC Sportsnet and the UFC on Fox in Chicago. The main event of the PBC show featured Beibut Shumenov (16-2, 10 KOs) beating BJ Flores (31-2-1, 20 KOs) to win the interim WBA Cruiserweight title. Shumenov won on three straight scores of 116-112. I didn’t see the Shumenov-Flores fight, but reports were that it was a dull fight with poor output from both boxers.
And for those interested, Stitch Duran worked Shumenov’s corner.
Also, for those paying attention to the other controversial story in MMA this week, after the Kovalev fight HBO replayed the episode of Real Sports that featured the segment on domestic violence in MMA. HBO even hyped the replay repeatedly during the boxing broadcast, advertising the MMA domestic violence segment to the boxing audience, even though advertising for the episode elsewhere focused on the other segments aired by Real Sports.
HBO Boxing is a major competitor for market share against the UFC and it is not a coincidence that they opted to replay that Real Sports episode against the UFC on Fox main event and also hyped the MMA domestic violence story during the boxing broadcast. I do find it ironic, though, that HBO is so concerned about the rate of domestic violence among MMA athletes when they co-promoted a pay per view starring Floyd Mayweather Jr only a couple of months ago.
On Fox, TJ Dillashaw routed Renan Barao to retain the UFC Bantamweight title, drawing 2.29 million viewers in the overnights. The show featured a co-main event of Miesha Tate beating Jessica Eye by unanimous decision to setup a third fight between Tate and Ronda Rousey (assuming Rousey gets past Bethe Correira in Brazil next weekend) later this year. The HBO broadcast began at 10pm ET, just as the Dillashaw-Barao title fight was getting underway.
In Canada, the HBO fights did not air on HBO Canada, which ran reruns of other HBO programming instead. HBO Canada is a bastardized version of the genuine HBO that American viewers are fortunate to receive. Instead, Kovalev-Mohammedi and Pascal-Gonzalez were available as a pay per view in Quebec for $55 from pay per view broadcaster Indigo. It wasn’t available elsewhere in Canada, on pay per view or otherwise. Pascal fights always air on pay per view in Quebec and are blacked out elsewhere in Canada, which is the case for most Montreal boxing stars.
That Indigo could air a prelim fight featuring a weak Pascal against an unknown and want to charge $55 for it and keep a straight face is nothing short of amazing.
There is genuine animosity between Kovalev and Pascal and the first fight was exciting, so a rematch would figure to be another great fight. Importantly, it would also draw well locally in Montreal. But Pascal doesn’t deserve a rematch. He may have lost against Gonzalez, with many boxing writers feeling that Gonzalez, not Pascal, won the decision in a fight that elevates Gonzalez’s name value and box office appeal. There is a rumour that before Saturday night’s fights, however, Kovalev and Pascal’s camps already had a verbal agreement for a rematch if both won.
“If people are interested very much, I’m ready for any fighter… I’m ready for everyone,” Kovalev said in his post-fight interview when HBO’s Max Kellerman asked him about rematching against Pascal
“I’m still the cash cow because if this fight will be [in Quebec], there’ll be like 15,000 people and not only 1,000 sold,” Pascal said in the final pre-fight presser on Thursday. “I know I’m the cash cow of the division.”
The big money fight at light-heavyweight is between Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson, another star Montreal fight. Stevenson hold the WBC Light-Heavyweight title. He is also set to debut in Toronto in September, which would make him the biggest name boxer to come to Toronto since time immemorial.
The Kovalev-Adonis fight almost went to purse bid earlier this year. Kovalev’s promoter, Main Events, pulled Kovalev from the purse bid. Adonis is handled by Al Haymon and Haymon uses his Wall Street funding to win every important purse bid by a mile. It was looking like Haymon would easily outbid Main Events for the rights to the Kovalev-Adonis fight. The fight is now in limbo, with boxing’s politics keeping one of the biggest money pay per views on the shelf.
“I’m ready to fight Stevenson but he doesn’t want to fight me,” Kovalev told The Ring before the fight against Mohammedi. Adonis has been accused of avoiding a fight with Kovalev.
Others have accused Kovalev of dodging Adonis. For instance, Stephen Espinoza of Showtime posted on Saturday to Twitter that, “Kovalev hides behind his hbo contract. Kathy [Duva] knows Adonis will KO her guy.”
Kovalev’s side claimed that if Haymon won the purse bid and the fight was aired by Showtime, it would violate Kovalev’s exclusive contract with HBO. That may be true, but HBO and Showtime have worked together in the past and if the chance to make money is there, it is not like it would be impossible for them to work together in the future.
Another possible opponent for Kovalev is Andre Ward, who recently made his return to boxing by defeating Paul Smith in a glorified exhibition bout a few weeks ago on BET.
“I’m ready for any fight, for any fight. It’s boxing. It’s sport. First of all for me, it’s a sport,” Kovalev said when Kellerman asked him about Ward during Kovalev’s post-fight interview. “And if fans want to see this fight and promoters will make this fight, I’ll be happy.”
“I’ve had conversations with the people from Roc Nation. The (Andre) Ward fight is something I think is makeable, we’re having steady talks about it,” Kathy Duva, promoter of Main Events, told The Ring. “It won’t happen immediately, it looks like next year. Once he fights Andre Ward he won’t have the WBC (light heavyweight) title but he will be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world when the fight is over. It seems to be a good alternative since our first plan didn’t work.”
Yet another possibility is against fellow countryman Artur Beterbiev, who has looked incredible in a couple of fights that have aired on PBC broadcasts. Beterbiev is a Russian transplant who lives in Montreal and is promote by Yvon Michel, but controlled by Al Haymon.
At the Kovalev-Mohammedi post-fight presser, Kathy Duva said she would call Michel and offer a fight between Kovalev and Beterbiev in Russia for November 28th. Beterbiev holds an amateur win over Kovalev. Yvon Michel posted a message on Twitter saying he would gladly take that call, but odds of that fight happening are weak because Kovalev is an HBO guy and Beterbiev is a PBC guy. It seems that whether or not Kovalev’s next opponent is Beterbiev, Kovalev will be fighting no matter what on November 28th in Russia, which will only be Kovalev’s third fight in his home country after bouts in 2010 and 2011. It will be Kovalev’s first fight in Russia, though, after he has become a star.
“We wants to confirm @abeterbiev will take the challenge to fight Kovalev in Russia or anywhere, on HBO if the offer is fair!” Michel later posted to Twitter.
Kovalev-Beterbiev would be bad matchmaking for Beterbiev. A lot of people see Beterbiev as PBC’s version of Kovalev. Kovalev, however, is the more experienced and possibly the better skilled fighter and would be the favourite to win if the two fought this year, despite that Beterbiev has an amateur win over Kovalev years ago. It doesn’t make sense to put PBC’s version of Kovalev in against the real Kovalev with the expectation that the real Kovalev would win. A loss to Kovalev would ruins whatever future box office appeal Beterbiev may develop. If Beterbiev beat Kovalev, it would be damaging to Kovalev and a great boost to Beterbiev’s fortunes, but that seems like an unlikely outcome.
Beterbiev ought to be protected by PBC in order to increase his drawing power. Once Beterbiev’s drawing power reaches its peak, he should be matched against Adonis. Adonis is a PBC guy, so no matter who wins between Adonis and Beterbiev, PBC winds up on top. If Beterbiev beat Adonis, talks between Beterbiev and Kovalev would make more sense from the PBC side depending on how Beterbiev looked against Adonis and how Kovalev looked in his recent fights. But there still might be other good light-heavyweights under contract to Haymon that Beterbiev could fight before facing Kovalev, Andrzej Fonfara being an example, among others.
Ratings for the fights on HBO and NBC Sportsnet won’t be available until Monday or Tuesday. HBO has been drawing well this year, mostly due to the general increase in interest in boxing due to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight in May and the plethora of PBC fights on network television since March. Since Mohammedi has no name whatsoever and was given no chance against Kovalev whatsoever, whatever rating that fight draws will be solely on the back of Kovalev’s box office appeal. Thus, the rating will probably be a good gauge of the drawing power of simply seeing Kovalev fight.
Competition among other combat sports promotions was stiff for the night. It is still possible for HBO to squeak out a decent rating, though. PBC on NBC Sportsnet had a weak main event and NBC Sportsnet only draws good ratings for select events. PBC on Saturday didn’t seem like one of those events. And UFC drew well in the overnights considering who they had in the main event, but UFC draws from a totally different demographic than HBO Boxing. UFC being on network television on Saturday as opposed to cable, however, might put a bigger dent in HBO’s ratings with more people tuning in to UFC on Fox rather than if the UFC card was on Fox Sports 1.
Prior to the Kovalev-Mohammedi main event, HBO also announced that they had signed Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux for October 17th on pay per view. The fight will take place at Madison Square Garden. It is a huge match both from a sporting and a business perspective. Golovkin is widely considered the top middleweight and holds the WBA and interim WBC Middleweight titles. Lemieux is a star in Montreal and one of the rising stars of the Middleweight division and holds the IBF Middleweight belt. Like Golovkin, Lemieux is a massive power puncher. Golovkin will be the favourite, but it will be an exciting fight that people expect will end in a knockout victory either way. The fight will unify the title belts held by the two. The other middleweight champions are Miguel Cotto with the WBC title, Daniel Jacobs with the regular WBA title (WBA typical has two champs for each division, obviously a cheap ploy to glean more sanctioning fees), and Andy Lee with the WBO belt.
From a business perspective, the fight is important because it is the first time that Golovkin will be headlining a pay per view. One of the obstacles Golovkin has faced in getting fights against big names is that Golovkin is considered one of the most dangerous fighters in boxing, but doesn’t have enough box office appeal to make fighting him worthwhile. If Golovkin can draw money on pay per view, that will make him a viable opponent against some bigger names at middleweight, super-middleweight, or even light-heavyweight in fights that could draw big money on pay per view. On the other hand, if Golovkin draws poorly on pay per view, or if he loses badly to Lemieux, it will become that much harder for Golovkin to garner fights against bigger names.
The most likely outcome is that Golovkin beats Lemieux and then a couple of months later Canelo Alvarez beats Miguel Cotto on pay per view. That would setup Golovkin vs. Canelo maybe next May in a massive pay per view fight. A win over Golovkin might cement Canelo is the heir to Floyd Mayweather’s throne as boxing’s biggest star. Even a loss for Canelo in a classic fight wouldn’t hurt Canelo’s star power. No matter what happens, though, a major tent-pole pay per view fight between Golovkin and Canelo next year will shape the landscape of the boxing industry for years to come.
It is an interesting match for Golden Boy, Lemieux’s promoter. Golden Boy doesn’t have many star fighters left with most of their roster being poached by Al Haymon when PBC bowed on NBC earlier this year. The idea here is clearly to use Lemieux as a setup to give Golovkin a major push before he faces Canelo, the latter of whom is Golden Boy’s biggest star and realistically their last remaining meal ticket.
I think feeding Lemieux to Golovkin to build hype for a Golovkin-Canelo showdown is good matchmaking. But it does require sacrificing Lemieux, who is one of the only stars Golden Boy has created since Al Haymon formed PBC. I thought a better move would be to try and get Golovkin to fight Bernard Hopkins at light-heavyweight. A win over Hopkins would mean much more for Golovkin’s box office appeal than a win over Lemieux, plus Hopkins has little time left as a professional boxer, compared to Lemieux who could be a star for years. Maybe Golden Boy tried and couldn’t put that fight together, I don’t know. I also liked the idea of De La Hoya coming out of retirement to get beaten by Golovkin, although that was a fantasy match long-shot at best. Golovkin beating De La Hoya would setup Canelo getting revenge against Golovkin, which would be a huge deal to boxing’s Mexican audience.
No matter what happens, though, boxing will have a number of major pay per views over the coming few months, with Canelo-Cotto, Golovkin-Lemieux, and Floyd Mayweather’s supposed retirement fight all taking place sometime between September and Christmas.
Jeremy Wall can be contacted at jeremywall1984@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @jeremydalewall.