Sergey Alexandrovich Kovalev (born
April 2, 1983) is a Russian professional boxer. He is a former unified
light heavyweight world champion, having held the WBA (Undisputed),
IBF, and WBO titles between 2013 and 2016. The Ring magazine named
him their Fighter of the Year in 2014, and in July 2016 he was ranked
as the world’s best light heavyweight by The Ring and BoxRec, both
of which also ranked him as the world’s third best active boxer, pound
for pound. Kovalev is well known for his formidable punching power.
Amateur career
Kovalev started boxing in 1994 at age 11, and
made his amateur debut in 1997 in the Russian Boxing Junior Championship,
where he won the gold medal in the middleweight juniors division.
One year later he competed with the seniors and reached the final,
and a year after that, he won the final fight. For Team Russia, he
competed in the European Championships.
In 2004, Kovalev for
the first time took part in the Russian senior Championship, and in
his first season he reached the final and also won the gold medal
in the team event. The next year was the most successful in his career
as an amateur in winning two titles: the first as champion of Russia
and the second as champion among servicemen. In the 2006 championship
for servicemen, he won the silver, and a year later, he took bronze
in the Russian Championship and gold in the World Military Games in
India.
In 2008, Kovalev took part in his final national competition
and again made the final; after that he decided to turn professional.
As he once admitted, he had to leave the national team because of
the extremely tense competition between him and more successful boxers
such as Artur Beterbiev. He finished his amateur career with a record
of 195-18.
Professional career
Early years
Kovalev started his
career with a first-round KO of Daniel Chavez at Greenboro Coliseum
in Greensboro, North Carolina. He won his first nine fights with first
or second round knockouts. He faced more serious competition against
Darnell Boone in October 2010, when he had to fight all eight rounds,
and was dropped en route to a split decision win.
In July 2011,
Kovalev won his first NABA belt in a 10 round fight with Douglas Otieno
from Kenya. The Russian’s next bout against Grover Young was controversial,
however, as in the second round, Kovalev threw a left hook to the
head, but the judges suggested that it was a blow to the back of the
head, and unintentional infringement. As the American could not continue,
the fight was declared a technical draw.
Death of Roman Simakov
In
his 2011 fight against Roman Simakov, Kovalev knocked down his opponent
in the sixth round and the fight was stopped one round later and Kovalev
was awarded a TKO victory. Simakov was taken to the hospital, where
he lapsed into a coma and died three days later.
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