By Norm Frauenheim-
LAS VEGAS – There’s not much left to say, so Sergey Kovalev probably said it best by not saying much at all.
One word across the front of Kovalev’s cap might have summed it up best Thursday at a contentious news conference when promoters, managers and trainers exchanged insults the way Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor will for the next couple of months. More on them later.
WAR in white letters stood out boldly on a Kovalev cap that, appropriately enough, was black. The Russian picked the right color for the role he has in his rematch Saturday against Andre Ward in an HBO pay-per-view bout at Mandalay Bay. He’s the bad guy, perhaps by choice or maybe because he remembered the red cap with the same word stitched in gold that Marvin Hagler wore for his legendary victory over Thomas Hearns more than 32 years ago.
Whatever the motivation, Kovalev declared his intent with silence both ominous and perhaps deadly. He skipped a session with a handful or reporters before the formal news conference. His promoter, Kathy Duva of Main Events, and his manager, Egis Klimas spoke for him.
“He is stressed out,’’ Klimas said. “…He came here to fight, not talk.’’
Duva said Kovalev was like a tiger, pacing back and forth up in his hotel room. Klimas said Kovalev had grown restless at endless rounds of interviews conducted in English instead of his native Russian. It’s also no secret that he just doesn’t like Ward or anybody else around the light-heavyweight champion who took his titles in a hugely controversial decision last November. The tension between the two is evident and it adds an intriguing element to a rivalry as genuine as it unappreciated.
Kovalev appears to dislike Ward so much that he doesn’t even want to be in the same room with him for long. At least, the Russian didn’t hang around Thursday. He showed up for the news conference with a scowl that seemed to say that the message on his cap was dangerously real.
When it was his turn to speak, he thanked his promoters and Mandalay Bay. Then, he looked to his right and at Ward, who was appropriately dressed in good-guy white.
“I’ve already said enough,’’ Kovalev said as he then pointed at Ward. “And, you, be prepared.’’
Ward didn’t like what he heard. Or saw. His rhetorical counter was immediate.
“Don’t point your finger at me,’’ said Ward, who showed up for his session with reporters before the news conference.
Kovalev turned his back on him, walked off the stage and out of a room adjacent to the Mandalay Bay Events Center, site for Saturday night’s fight.
What happened next was predictable. The news conference turned into a Kovalev roast.
Kovalev calls himself Krusher. Ward manager James Prince had fun with that.
“Usher,’’ Prince said.
Prince also suggested Kovalev was rude.
“I don’t know how they act in Russia, but we don’t act that way in the USA,” he said.
Without Kovalev at the end of the news conference, there was no ritual, nose-to-nose pose for the cameras. With the mounting tension, you can only wonder what might happen when the two are asked to face each other in a pose for the photographers after Friday’s weigh-in.
The bumpy news conference was just another chapter in in the overall tension between the Ward and Kovalev camps. Duva and Klimas say that Kovalev has been doing the lion’s share of promotional work.
“On this, Sergey does not think Ward is doing enough,’’ Klimas said. “Ward has a sugar daddy who pays him $7 million for this fight. Sergey is earning every single penny. He is promoting this fight as much as he can.’’
But Roc Nation, Ward’s promoter, argues that Main Events hasn’t done its share.
“I find it is odd that they comment about it,’’ Roc Nation’s Michael Yormark said. “They haven’t done anything to promote this fight.’’
The build-up this week for the rematch has also been lost amid all of the hype over the announcement Wednesday that Mayweather will fight Conor McGregor, a UFC star, in a Nevada-sanctioned boxing match on August 26 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in a Showtime PPV spectacle.
“It is also a kick in the teeth, at least to me personally, in terms of the circus they announced yesterday. That’s been on the front page of
everything. That’s a little discouraging.’’
Meanwhile, Yormark opened the news conference by saying that Kovalev-Ward is “not the money-grabbing spectacle that will play out later this year.’’
No, it’s not. Ward-Kovalev 2 includes heightening tension and mounting stakes. It’s real as a fight can be. About that – and perhaps only that, there’s no disagreement.
