Abror Tursunpulatov: Kovalev’s defeat is my fault. How Sergei Kovalev suffered a second scandalous defeat from Andre Ward Sergei Kovalev lost

As you know, the Russian heavyweight Sergey Kovalev lost to the Colombian Eleider Alvarez TKO in the seventh round and lost the WBO world title.

About the reasons for the defeat - editor-in-chief of the online publication "Boxing. Udarniki" Valery Sizonenko:

The first reason for defeat: improper distribution of fuel throughout the battle is the most weakness from Sergei Kovalev.

The second reason: the coach.

The coach, the second in the corner, must first of all be a psychologist and strategist, and only then be able to hold his paws and remind the student of the basics of boxing. Unfortunately, Kovalev had no luck with coaches, physical trainers, and at this level there must be an appropriate coach, otherwise sooner or later you will be counted out, which is what happened with Sergei Kovalev.

The chronic reason for Kovalev’s defeats is spiritual. “I know everything”, “I can do everything”! With such arrogance, sooner or later you will be overtaken, and you will forget how to do what you knew how to do before. Professional growth stops, and sooner or later the old baggage will not be enough.

And this arrogance turns into problems with psychology. A proud person cannot admit that he was wrong; accordingly, he puts himself in a hostage situation. He receives an additional burden of responsibility, and also deprives himself of the opportunity to maneuver, because he cannot go against his ego.

After Kovalev's second defeat, coach Andre Ward invited him to work together: a specialist who calculated Kovalev, tailored Andre Ward to it and made him win.

Did Kovalev take advantage of this chance to start working with a coach? high class who can take you to the next level? No. Why? Yes, because pride did not allow it. Because Kovalev was unable to accept these defeats and analyze them. And in battle, when a fighter with a broken and uncorrected psychology misses a blow and finds himself in a difficult situation, his first thoughts are: “Again”? "Again"? "What to do"?

What did Ward do when he was knocked down by Kovalev? He jammed, waited and turned the tide of the battle.

What did Kovalev do when he found himself in a similar situation with Alvarez?
Go to the exchange! This is a deadly mistake! You missed a shot, you have a disorder in your head, your reflexes are impaired, you lose speed and power, you have no advantage in the exchange, this is an unjustified risk! This is a rookie mistake professional ring: missed, and went “hit or miss”, with a 90% chance of losing by knockout.

Is Alvarez finished as Crusher?
The question is only for Kovalev. If he is ready to kill his pride, endure mental suffering and personal shame, and gain inner humility, he should seek help from people who can resuscitate him, and add to this a mixture of his own steel character, show patience, and great hard work. Crusher can reboot and come back as a new version of himself. Or maybe he’ll just get drunk, healing mental trauma. The choice is his only.

Perhaps to return at 35 after such a defeat?

Certainly. Nothing is impossible as long as we are alive, as long as we have health and desire!

Bernard Hopkins, whom Kovalev admired as his best opponent, at the age of 46 gave boxing lessons to his younger colleagues. Why? Yes, because Hopkins, like Andre Ward, is a thinking and hardworking boxer! And this is exactly what you need to learn from them! Think! Instead of making decisions and acting on emotions.

I wish Kovalev to draw the right conclusions. And remember the words he said Murat Gassiev after his recent defeat: “Sometimes you have to take one step back to take two forward!”

Sergey Kovalev lost. It's time to go?

The main Russian boxer stopped one step away from a unification fight and is now close to ending his career.

After two defeats from Andre Ward I thought not only about changing my coach, but also about adjusting my lifestyle. In almost every interview, the Russian said that previously he did not bother himself too much with training between fights, allowing himself to rest a little more than he should have.

Before the fight with Alvarez, Crusher reiterated that he had changed, learned lessons from painful defeats and was immensely glad that someone above gave him another chance. In all these interviews, one thing was a little scary - Sergei talked too much about the past, and fights with Vyacheslav Shabransky And Igor Mikhalkin could not give the opportunity to evaluate the present. It was precisely he who had to explain to all of us, and at the same time to Kovalev himself, whether the reboot was really a success.

According to rumors, which were later indirectly confirmed by Sergei himself, before the fight with the Colombian he had one of the best training camps in his life. At the weigh-in before the fight itself, the Russian showed 78.9 kilograms on the scales, which is 500 grams less than the permissible limit. This was a good sign, considering that last time Kovalev had a pretty hard time losing weight.

Then you can look for a catch in Sergei’s excessive smiling at the weigh-in and even during the fight. You can look for something in the Russian’s gaze before the fight. But all this will be just speculation and conspiracy theory. The truth is that Kovalev was winning the fight and interrupting Alvarez.

At the time the fight was stopped, all three judges gave victory to the Russian: 59-55, 59-55 and 58-56, and the strike statistics were also on Sergei’s side: 91 to 73 shots on target out of 331 and 251, respectively.

The crasher failed the crash test. Alvarez knocked out Kovalev

Sergey Kovalev lost for the first time by a heavy knockout.

Kovalev was more active, but Alvarez was more accurate. After each defeat from Ward, Sergei could always find excuses and, in fact, not prevaricate - in the first fight he was actually condemned. The second time he was actually hit below the belt. Only for some reason many forgot the course of the second fight and no longer remember what preceded the final series of blows that led to the stoppage. Kovalev was losing the fight and in the eighth round Ward managed to shock the Russian with a clean blow.

This time, Kovalev, fans and spectators can again take the simple route and chalk it up to an accidental blow. In part, this will again be true, but this will only once again divert the focus from certain problems, the nature of which is again very difficult to determine.

We have seen situations more than once when a boxer ages overnight right before our eyes, as happened with Vladimir Klitschko in battle with Tyson Fury or with David Hay in two fights with Tony Bellew. At the same time, we can state with confidence once again that in boxing you should never trust the numbers in your passport.

In case you didn't know, Alvarez is only a year and six days younger than Kovalev. But the problem was different - Eleider was a contender for the WBC title for two years, and only by chance he got the chance of a lifetime in a fight with another champion. How important this fight was for the Colombian could be understood from his look.

Sergey Kovalev lost to Eleider Alvarez by knockout. How it was

Crusher lost his WBO light heavyweight title.

Another simple solution would be to attribute what happened to the notorious lack of hunger. We can talk about underestimating the opponent, which is frankly hard to believe.

Sergei’s promoter Katie Duva has already shared her version. In an interview with ESPN, the head of Main Events explained what happened this way:

“Sergey was winning, but it seems he was tired after the sixth round. This is a magic round - it was the same in the first fight with Ward. I guess he was just tired.

I was happy with the way the fight was going, but I told Kovalev’s manager Egis Klimas: “Let’s get through the sixth round and I’ll relax.” But you saw what happened. I don't want to diminish Alvarez's achievements. Sergey dominated and Eleider came back and stopped him. This is quite an impressive achievement. Sergei fought brilliantly for six rounds.”

At the same time, Duva told a very important thing - the contract for the fight included a clause for revenge in the event of Sergei’s defeat. Formally, Kovalev can get even for the defeat at the end of this year, but...

The Russian’s coach Abror Tursunpulatov, in a conversation with a TASS correspondent, said a rather discouraging thing:

“There will be no revenge, Seryoga must quit boxing. Health is not the same. Even if he won the fight, I would suggest that he end his career.”

Such a statement from the mouth of a new coach looks like a death sentence. There are no additional details yet, but it is quite obvious that Tursunpulatov knows the situation much better than us.

In general, the thought that we were watching the decline of Crusher was the first after the end of the fight. Kovalev didn't look bad, but right now it's just not clear why he should continue.

From a boxing point of view, after three fights under the leadership of a new coach, we still did not see a fundamental difference between Kovalev and himself in the conditional first fight with Ward. Sergei was studied, but what is even worse, it seems that he was penetrated.

Rumors about the Russian’s not-so-strong jaw had been circulating for quite some time, but Crusher was beating his opponents faster than they could get to Sergei’s chin with a good blow. The first bell came in the second fight with Ward, who can hardly be called a punching boxer. Today Alvarez managed to put the Russian on the floor with one clean, albeit somewhat stray blow. By the way, Eleider is also not a puncher in the literal sense of the word - in 23 fights, the Colombian stopped 11 opponents. With today's win, Alvarez improves his stoppage win percentage to 50 percent.

Worse is what happened after the first knockdown - a cloud of missed punches and two subsequent falls. Sergey missed too many, and these blows will definitely not serve him well in future fights. If they will.

After the fight, Kovalev was taken to the hospital to determine that his health was not in danger. The same cannot be said about a career.

The Russian should think hard about whether he needs a second fight with Alvarez. At the same time, you can absolutely forget about unification fights. Even if Kovalev decides to fight Eleider a second time, this will not happen until the end of this year, and Sergey will turn 36 in April. Time is against Crusher, and there is also every reason to believe that Bivol, Beterbiev and Stevenson hit harder than Alvarez.

One night, like one blow, can change everything. Just yesterday we, perhaps Sergei himself, already clearly imagined the Russian derby with Dmitry Bivol in light heavyweight. While the WBA champion did a brilliant job, the WBO champion lost his title. And this dramatically changes the picture throughout the division. Until tonight we talked about three Russian-speaking champions in this weight. Right now we need to talk about three champions, one way or another connected with Yvon Michel– promoter of Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev and newly crowned champion Eleider Alvarez. It's funny how at one point the main contender for the title absolute champion Stevenson suddenly became the world leader - after all, it would be quite easy to organize meetings between boxers from the same promotion company. Now it can intervene Alexander Gvozdyk, who will try himself in the role of Eleider Alvarez, and, to be honest, he has a good chance of repeating the success of the Colombian.

Stevenson's defeat would be symbolic. Adonis won his belt in 2013 and did so two months before he went to Wales and came away as world champion. At that moment, it was these two fighters who were supposed to determine the best light heavyweight on the planet for the next five years. But this never happened. Today one of them took a big step towards completing his journey.

Whatever decision you make, we must and will respect it. In an ideal world, I would like to see the Russian come back for a rematch with Alvarez, defeat him and walk away as champion. A man with such a difficult history deserved this. But this is boxing, and very often parting with it is not very beautiful.

Future opponent Fedora Emelianenko Chael Sonnen once, as usual, the best of all, described the end of his career in impact sports.

“Other than Lennox Lewis, I can’t think of anyone who could go out on a high. All our careers end the same way - lying face down with a feeling of discouragement. And I'm going to follow suit. I don’t want to leave anything behind me.”

"SE" - about the fight in Las Vegas, the previously undefeated world champion according to WBA, WBO and IBF versions light heavyweight and American Andre Ward. Three judges awarded victory by one point the Russian's opponent.

The fight started quite well for Kovalev. In the first two rounds he had a chance to decide everything in his favor. And then Ward was able to turn the tide of the fight and impose his unpleasant style. In this tough fight he turned out to be stronger. By decision of the judges (score - 114:113, 114:113 and 114:113).

Judge's notes:

08.38 All 12 rounds are over. The judges rule in Ward's favor. Kovalev lost

08.34 11th round. Ward in the corner was set up to not worry or worry about anything.

08.33 The tenth round does not leave the most pleasant impression. A brutal exchange of blows took place. But Kovalev just can’t hit it the way he knows how. One blow would have been enough for Ward.

08.32 Tenth round.

08.31 The battle is rocking a little bit - the end is near. This forces the audience to become more active. Finally!

08.28 Ninth round.

08.27 As it was sung in one famous song, “there is little fire.” Ward imposes his fighting style on Kovalev. And makes the opponent nervous. In general, Ward does not allow himself to be beaten.

08.24 Eighth round.

08.23 Kovalev manages to keep Ward off balance. But he just can’t manage to deliver his signature blow. If they do pass, they are extremely mild.

08.20 Seventh round.

08.19 There is a lot of such sticky and unpleasant fighting in the ring. There is practically no boxing itself yet.

08.16 Sixth round.

08.15 Kovalev misses several extremely unpleasant blows in the fifth round. Perhaps for the first time since the beginning of the fight, we can talk about a slight advantage for Ward.

08.12 Fifth round. And let's not forget that we are watching a fight between two undefeated boxers. Someone will suffer the first defeat in their career today.

08.11 In the fourth round, Ward rebuilt himself a little - now he tries to respond to every blow of Kovalev with his own. Several cross attacks happened.

08.08 Round number four!

08.07 The third round took place in a very calm manner.

08.04 From the first seconds of the third round, Kovalev continues what he started, and Ward goes into the clinch and turns boxing into a fight.

08.03 In the second round, Kovalev pretty much beat up his opponent. And it’s worth noting that, to some extent, Ward was lucky that it wasn’t over now.

08.02 There's Ward's first knockdown!

08.00 We rested a little - and the second round!

07.59 The first round is over. Kovalev carried out a couple of tough attacks, but before his famous crushing blows I haven't finished the matter yet.

07.56 The fight has begun!

07.50 Let's remember the main ones this moment victory

07.40 Chelyabinsk nugget - the most titled Russian boxer- will meet the most serious opponent of his career, an American Andre Ward. Both were undefeated, both claim to be the best boxer in the world, regardless of weight category, and the defense of three titles is at stake - WBA, WBO, IBF. Kovalev fought 31 fights without a single defeat. Ward's statistics are also impeccable - 30 wins, never lost. This is enough to understand that the cutting will be serious.

07.30 Hi all! In about 30 minutes in Las Vegas undefeated champion world according to WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight titles will meet the most serious opponent of his career - an American Andre Ward.

They met as part of a boxing evening held in the USA. Kovalev was considered the favorite of this fight, and he was close to winning - in the fourth round, the Russian carried out a series of powerful blows, after which Alvarez did not fall only by a miracle. In the next two three-minute periods, Kovalev’s advantage was also obvious.

However, in the seventh round the situation changed radically. Sergei missed several blows and was knocked down. He managed to get up, but only to find himself on the canvas again. And the second time the referee did not stop the fight, but after the third knockdown the fight ended - Kovalev lost. This defeat was his third in his career with 33 victories, 28 of which he won by knockout.

After the fight, Kovalev published in his Instagram video in which he thanked the fans for their support, apologized to them for this failure, and also said that everything was fine with him. He also hinted at the imminent end of his career: “Apparently, it’s time to hang up the gloves.” However, Sergei also noted that he does not intend to draw hasty conclusions from the defeat.

However, it is possible that Kovalev will actually retire from boxing soon. His coach Abror Tursunpulatov believes that Sergei should end his career. He also blames himself for his ward's failure.

“I would like him to end his career. His health is no longer that of a young athlete. He did his job. He had several belts. He wrote his name in history. Such is his fate. And his opponent also earned the right to become a world champion. Alvarez worked for many years. If Sergei had not missed one blow, everything would have turned out differently, and victory would have been on our side, - Soviet Sport quotes Tursunpulatov as saying. - Sergei hit good blows. Alvarez endured it. Maybe we went too far somewhere. And this defeat is also my fault. I blame myself for this defeat. I probably didn't prepare my boxer correctly. And for me this is a great experience, although we did not do any experiments. All work was completed according to plan."

At this boxing evening, a fight took place with the participation of another Russian. Dmitry Bivol defeated Malawian Isaac Chilemba by unanimous decision - 120:108, 120:108, 116:112 - and retained the WBA champion title. Bivol's manager Vadim Kornilov emphasized that Dmitry is ready for unification fights and, most likely, will fight his next fight before the end of the year. It is possible that Alvarez will become his opponent.

"Of course, Dmitry will hold next fight until the end of the year,” TASS quotes Kornilov. - He is ready for unification fights, after the fight we will look at the opponent. As for Chilemba, his style does not allow him to show a spectacular fight. But Dmitry played all the rounds as planned."

Why did Sergei Kovalev lose? Best boxer Russia was knocked down three times

The fight between Sergey Kovalev and Eleider Alvarez for the WBO title was stopped in the seventh round after Kovalev was knocked down for the third time.

Reason No. 1. Alvarez knocked the self-confidence out of Kovalev

Recently in the UFC, Gadzhimurad Antigulov fought with Ion Cutelaba. At the weigh-in, Kutselaba unexpectedly aggressively headbutted Antigulov, forced Dana White to do what is called “split”, and in addition shouted.

Before the fight, Kutselaba did not shake Antigulov’s hand and was again aggressive. And the fight itself suddenly won. My colleague then suggested that Kutselaba made Antigulov doubt himself. The reason is that Gadzhimurad did not know how to behave. It's hard to believe, but it can be explained. The guys from Dagestan have the status of very tough guys, and usually no one wants to act cocky before the fight starts, because it’s better to fight them in a cage with a judge and according to the rules than anything else. And this tradition itself was so entrenched that when Kutselaba broke it, everyone was confused. Such examples sometimes happen, there are videos of street fights where someone unexpectedly behaves impudently with a (seemingly) stronger opponent and it works out.

There is such a thing as “dirty boxing” - low blows, elbow strikes, knee strikes, groin strikes and much more. This is all effective in itself, but Eleider Alvarez, it seems, achieved much more with this - it was necessary for Kovalev to stop understanding what he should do with it. So that Kovalev himself would worry, and not his opponent.

In the first two rounds, Alvarez first hit the back of the head with his hand, and then bent Kovalev over the ropes in a clinch two seconds after the “stop” command. And after the episode, Kovalev held his hand behind his back, since he had to bend very hard and could have been injured.

Then they will collide heads, Alvarez will punch below or at the level of the rubber band and try to break Kovalev’s back on the ropes. This cannot win the battle, but it can pin down the opponent. Especially when both boxers know that a year ago the fight was stolen from Kovalev, counting a knockout after a hit below the belt. It turned out that Kovalev caused damage with punches, but Alvarez, in addition to punches, caused damage with himself. This was layered with Kovalev’s confidence that the referee in the ring would always be against him. And it became more difficult for him.

Reason No. 2. Kovalev's coach could have made a mistake

Knockouts are like plane crashes. There is one reason, but for it to cause a fall, many things must coincide.

Kovalev had a great fourth round. Sergey stung with a jab, then punched several ligaments to the body and landed a heavy right hook to the head. Everything looked as it usually does in Kovalev’s fights a few seconds before their end. But Alvarez made it to the gong, and Kovalev came to his corner, and here coach Tursunpulatov had a very difficult choice. It is known that Sergei is not always able to distribute his forces, that he has problems with the second halves of fights, and there were two options: save for the future or take risks and finish. The coach said, “He’s going to fall. Now we need to let go, rest this round, don’t do much. Cross, go away, rest." And Sergey listened (usually listening to a coach was not Kovalev’s strong point, and this did not bother him at all).

Kovalev calmed down in the fifth round and maintained the same pace in the sixth. Alvarez came to his senses, collected himself and started punching. Two hours after this, Abror Tursunpulatov will tell TASS: “There will be no revenge, Seryoga must quit boxing. Health is not the same. Even if he won the fight, I would suggest that he end his career.” These are valuable words for the media, but unexpected for a coach who began working with the boxer less than a year ago and then said: “I told Sergei that we are now starting to prepare for Ward. I think there will be a third fight. Sergei himself really wants this, and we will prepare for it.”

Reason No. 3. Alvarez boxed more diversely

You can just count everything that Eleider Alvarez threatened during this fight. We talked about dirty boxing, but that's not the main thing. The Colombian was, in principle, more inventive. In the early rounds, Kovalev's head snapped back several times after landing a jab. He landed accurately and, more importantly for this shot, at the right time.

Then Alvarez began to hit the body more often. Yes, with hints of hits below the elastic band, but there were also good hits in the stomach and liver area. Eleider had deuces, and the knockdown happened after a right hand, and here, most likely, we should praise another coach. Which was in Eleider's corner. The fact is that in the second fight with Andre Ward, Kovalev’s problems began after a very similar hit. Both then and now the Russian threw out left hand, in each case holding it a little lower than it should have been, and the opponent’s right flew right over it. Only then Ward was unable to finish the fight without the help of the referee, but Alvarez managed to do it.

In the Colombian's corner they spoke French, it was difficult to understand, but before the final round they said: “The two punches you landed have started to go through.” It might not be a right over the arm, but that's what Eleider Alvarez tries once in the seventh round and lands it through the air, but in less than a minute he throws it right on target.

Photo: Elsa / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru