Sergey Kovalev enjoyed success as one of the best light heavyweight’s on the planet.
A former unified world light heavyweight champion, Kovalev reigned supreme at 175lbs for 3 years, before suffering back to back defeats to Andre Ward in 2016 and 2017 respectively, putting an end to a rivalry that was many years in the making.
‘Krusher’ regained the WBO world title at the end of 2017, where he lost just once more before an intriguing showdown against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in November 2019, with the Mexican superstar stopping the Russian in the eleventh round, becoming a four weight world champion in the process.
Kovalev spoke to FightHub TV, where the Russian declared he was ‘100% sure’ that Canelo would have been victorious against Ward, in what would have been an incredible fight for the sport.
“100% [Canelo is a better fighter than Andre Ward].
Maybe Ward was better at super-middleweight but not at light heavyweight. Canelo fights everybody, he has stamina, good legs, speed, IQ, everything. I respect him.”
‘S.O.G’ announced his retirement from boxing in September 2017 at the age of 33, claiming his desire to continue fighting had gone.
Since walking away from the sport, Ward has revealed on a number of occasions that he has been tempted to make a return to boxing to challenge Canelo, but a fight between the pair never materialised. The 40-year-old has moved into working as a boxing analyst, covering some of the biggest fights within the sport in recent years.
Canelo is set to return to the ring in the first half of 2025, as rumours of a dream fight between himself and Terence Crawford begin to intensify.
