By Norm Frauenheim-
Sergey Kovalev is new to English. It’s a second language for the light-heavyweight who grew up speaking Russian.
Occasionally he’ll ask manager Egis Klimas to translate. Sometimes, a phrase or cliché will confuse him. But don’t let that fool you. He’s learning English grammar and some of its common slurs as thoroughly as he once learned his way around a ring. Kovalev is already more fluent in English than Vladimir Putin.
A new language is an acquired skill, mastered by work and study. By now, it is evident Kovalev isn’t afraid of either. But there’s more to this process than just diligence. Like his dangerous complement of heavy hands and unnerving poise, he possesses an instinctive ability to communicate. No matter the language or how it’s delivered, his words connect like his punches.
No translation was necessary during an hour-long conference call this week for his title defense against Nadjib Mohammedi on July 25 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay in an HBO-televised bout. There was no BS. Amend that. Subtract the bull and leave the remaining four letters for Kovalev’s ongoing description of Adonis Stevenson, who has the WBC-version of the title.
Stevenson is a piece of bleep, Kovalev — sounding very American — said of the Canadian, who he says continues to duck him.
About everything else, however, he was simple and direct in a way increasingly foreign in a business so prone to euphemistic double-speak.
“A lot of fighters are making business, but not making boxing,’’ said Kovalev, an emerging pound-for-pound contender and a prohibitive favorite over Mohammedi, Frenchman of Algerian descent. “On my left hand, I can count who are the real fighters in boxing: Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto and Keith Thurman and I don’t remember more. Maybe me.’’
During a tiresome few weeks full of guessing about what Floyd Mayweather Jr. will or won’t do on Sept. 12, Kovalev’s pointed comment stood in contrast — as stark as it was a relief.
There have been mounting reports that Mayweather might fight Andre Berto in the sixth and final bout on his Showtime contract. Speculation is that it’ll be offered on free-TV, Showtime’s CBS flagship, instead of pay-per-view. According to some of the reports, a Mayweather bout on free-TV will be sold as a remedy to public anger still there from many in a record audience who spent $100 for the dull PPV telecast of Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao.
Berto a remedy? Please. Berto is 3-3 over his last six bouts. If that’s a remedy, give me shot a hemlock, Mayweather against anybody other than Thurman or Amir Khan only threatens to further alienate fans. They already believe they were played for suckers throughout the Mayweather-Pacquiao hype.
Before Berto’s name emerged, Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe dismissed Thurman as a possibility. Ellerbe said Thurman wasn’t at Mayweather’s level. Berto isn’t at Thurman’s level. Who knows if Berto and Mayweather will fight? But if they do, it is just one more reason to suspect another shakedown is in the works, perhaps for Mayweather’s free-agent finale in a 50th bout.
In Kovalev, at least, there’s a sense he’s building his career patiently, all in a big-money attempt to fight Andre Ward. Kovalev-Ward looms as a fight that could be everything Mayweather-Pacquiao wasn’t. Early talk about it indicates real interest instead of the cynicism so prevalent in the wake of the Mayweather-Pacquiao money grab on May 2.
“We have been talking to Andrew Ward’s people all week,’’ said Kovalev promoter Kathy Duva, who expects the fight sometime next year. “We all agree the fight is going to happen.’’
In any language, that sounds good.
