On February 24, 2015, Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Jean Pascal hosted a conference call for the boxing media as they approach their light heavyweight showdown in Pascal’s hometown of Montreal on March 14, 2015.
The fight will be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 9:45 p.m., EST. Pascal will be looking to regain the light heavyweight championship from quite possibly the most feared light heavyweight in the sport today. Kovalev will be coming off the biggest win of his career after defeating future hall of famer, Bernard Hopkins via a dominating 12-round performance.
Pascal also went toe-to-toe with Hopkins previously in two bouts. The first ended in a questionable draw that had Pascal retaining his titles; the second fight Hopkins won via a unanimous decision and become the oldest man to win a title in the sport of boxing.
The call began with small introductions from both fighters. “Hello everybody. I’m waiting for March 14, I’m very excited, I believe this is going to be a great boxing day and show in Canada,” stated Kovalev.
“This fight is going to be a classic. The best vs. the best, Sergey believes he is the best and I believe I am the best. This fight reminds me of Rocky 4. You have the North American guy vs. the Russian, East vs. West; I am a huge underdog like Rocky. I think I am the black Balboa,’’ said a confident Pascal.
Pascal would continue to speak about his comparisons with the Rocky films and state that he believes he will give the Krusher his first professional loss as Rocky did to Apollo Creed. Later on in the call, Kovalev’s trainer John David Jackson touched on those comments.
[otw_shortcode_quote border=”bordered” border_style=”bordered” color_class=”otw-black-text”]“Rocky was a movie. In real life the Russian would beat Rocky. This isn’t a Stallone movie and this Russian is going to beat Pascal.”[/otw_shortcode_quote]
Kovalev was then asked if he believed Pascal was his best opponent to date on paper. “Its true, Pascal is a huge opponent in my career, but I have fought many tough punchers and I am ready for anything.”
Pascal was then asked about one of the common opponents he shares with Sergey, which is Bernard Hopkins and his opinion on the outcome he had versus the one Kovalev had.
“Yes he did beat Hopkins, but in my mind I believe I beat Hopkins twice, even though on paper I lost I believe I beat him. We also share an opponent in Darnell Boone and I whooped this guy in one fight and it took Kovalev two fights to beat him decisively,” said Pascal.
The same question went to Kovalev. “I can say every fight is different, Hopkins for me I won easy, but for Pascal maybe a bit harder and some fights I fight I feel were difficult and to someone else it may be easy it just depends.” Kovalev was also asked about his knockout percentage and if he feels any pressure to continue to gain knockout in his fights. “I’m going to win my next fight and I don’t care if it is by knockout or decision. Nobody knows how I will win but I come in wanting to win. For this fight if I get knockout it will be nice present for everybody including myself,” said Kovalev.
Throughout the call both fighters’ trainers were also asked questions about their opponents. John David Jackson was asked on what he sees in Pascal as a boxer. “You can’t take him lightly. Jean was champion for a reason and you can’t look past him. Pascal is a very good fighter, intelligent and very good skill. His style is different and not one-dimensional and he likes to throw punches from different angles. Not the best defense or offense but everything he does he does well. Like I said, Rocky was a movie and was written for Rocky to win. This isn’t a movie.”
Pascal’s trainer Mark Ramsey was asked about training camp and how it has been going. “We did two week pre-training in Montreal, four weeks in Las Vegas and right now we are in Big Bear, California to finish up and I am very comfortable with how training camp has gone and how the fight will play out.”
Throughout the call, questions arose over the drug testing issues both camps had gone back and forth over since the fight was made. This topic seemed to bring out the frustrations in both camps, especially for Pascal and his team.
When asked about what had happened, Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events responded. “We had been approached by the Pascal camp to do drug testing and we agreed to do VADA testing, but Jean Pascal did not agree to do VADA testing. He originally offered to pay for it and did not want to pay the lower fee for the more credible testing so we felt he wasn’t very serious about it so no testing will be done.”
Pascal’s camp also chimed in regarding the testing issue. “We tried to land on a place that Pascal originally planned on that he’s had in place since 2013. Out of the two athletes fighting on March 14, only one has been tested randomly over 10 times and that’s Jean Pascal. Main Events shouldn’t be worried about what Pascal spends on testing if he is going to be paying for it. It’s a shame that Main Events wouldn’t allow us to pay for the protocol that has been in place for Jean Pascal since 2013.”
“Well our position is that Sergey Kovalev is the champion of the world and he will choose the protocol or we won’t do it. I want to put this to rest. He is clean. He is willing to take VADA testing which is the only agency that has reported drug use in boxing and for some reason, the Pascal team was told they can go to any agency they want, but Kovalev will be doing VADA testing which as far as we are concerned are of the highest caliber and they said no, end of story,” responded Duva.
Pascal wasn’t pleased with Duva’s answer and returned fire. “VADA only does boxers and I am willing to do Olympic style testing. VADA has no credibility, only for boxers and they don’t test any other sports. I am willing to go to the agency that tests every sport. So with that VADA bullshit, just leave it alone.”
By the end of the call it was clear that both camps were ready to get it on. Tensions grew high throughout the call, which one can only hope will carry over onto the ring on March 14. While Jean Pascal will try to stop the Krusher in his tracks, Sergey Kovalev will look to add another notch to his undefeated reign as the light heavyweight champ.
