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What’s next for ‘The Krusher’?

The Sergey Kovalev locomotive steamrolled into Montreal last weekend and pounded away on Jean Pascal en route to an eight-round TKO victory.

Kovalev May Feast on Mohameddi Before Finally Getting Shot at Stevenson

Sergey Kovalev Jean Pascal - Richard Wolowicz Getty Images

The Sergey Kovalev locomotive steamrolled into Montreal last weekend and pounded away on Jean Pascal en route to an eight-round TKO victory.

Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs) became the first fighter to stop the super athletic former champion and successfully defended his WBO, WBA & IBF light heavyweight titles in front of a crowd which included the WBC champion Adonis Stevenson.

Kovalev has had his eye on a unification match with Stevenson for a while, but the fight has yet to materialize although Stevenson did comment to Bernard Hopkins during the HBO telecast that he will at some point fight Kovalev.

Stevenson is slated to face Sakio Bika in Quebec on April 4 as part of the Premier Boxing Champions card on CBS.

Kovalev meanwhile will most likely defend his IBF title next against the mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohameddi in June, according to Kathy Duva of Main Events who promotes Kovalev and Mohameddi.

“It’s really up to HBO in terms of the date and venue, but we are hopeful it will be in June,” Duva said.

Mohameddi (37-3, 23 KOs) has fought on the last two Kovalev undercards, knocking out both Lee Campbell in Montreal and Demetrius Walker in the first round in Atlanic City the night Kovalev defeated Hopkins.

Mohameddi is trained by Abel Sanchez who also trains Gennnady Golovkin.

“We finally had one training camp together,” Sanchez said of Mohameddi. “I would not have wanted to face Kovalev without having at least one good camp first. Based on what I saw in Nadjib I think we are ready for Kovalev now.”

One of Kovalev’s challenges will be to keep his focus on Mohameddi when the talk with a fight against Stevenson looms on the horizon.

“After the Mohammedi fight Stevenson will either have to fight Sergey or vacate his title,” Duva said. “If he vacates the title then Sergey will fight whomever he needs to to unify all the titles.”

 

All quotes obtained firsthand by Vladimir Lik

All photos by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images

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