By Bart Barry-

Saturday Russian light heavyweight Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev laid waste to an otherwise-anonymous Ukrainian named Vyacheslav “Two YYs” Shabranskyy in the sort of woeful mismatch managers schedule immediately after their former champions get conclusively whupped but don’t traditionally expect to see televised. Especially on HBO. Seeing Kovalev bully another hopeless opponent, though, did nothing nearly so much as remind aficionados of Andre Ward’s greatness in moving up a weightclass and roughtrading Kovalev in June.

The weekend after Thanksgiving hopes to become a Krusher Kovalev turkey-giveaway tradition at HBO. Four years ago Kovalev krushed someone named Ismayl Sillah as part of the Stevenson-Kovalev marketing campaign that got Adonis Stevenson an absurd reward-to-risk ratio over at Showtime and got Kovalev a bunch of wellpaying placeholder matches and fruity modifiers – “most-feared”, “sociopathic”, “dominating”, and so forth – interspersed with chasing old man B-Hop round the ring and Kovalev’s recent reckoning with a great fighter in his prime, which, again, didn’t go swell for Krusher.

Before Thanksgiving weekend was about c-level cards and a-side rehab on HBO, well well before, several regimes before, 13 years before, someone had the chutzpah to put the third match of the remarkable Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales trilogy on the same weekend in Las Vegas. What one can’t help but sense when he revisits that fight is the honesty of it all. Even matchmaking, complementary skillsets (Barrera’s lefthook, Morales’s rightcross), genuine animosity, two superlative practitioners driven to lunacy by one another’s fists. It’s the disbelief the men retained even after 24 rounds together – what makes it different from, though not better than, Vazquez-Marquez: By the third time Israel Vazquez traded blows with Rafael Marquez (the greatest trilogy of my lifetime thus far) the men respected one another deeply, whereas Barrera and Morales spent their 25th round together treating one another like latereplacement pugs.

Morales came in the fight outweighing himself and with right yellowglove high and cocked, intending to stiffen Barrera more quickly than Manny Pacquiao’d turned the feat a year earlier. Barrera, meanwhile, proud as any man who’s been gloved, saw Morales only as HBO’s “puto campeón” – what he called Morales after their first fight, a pejorative subsequently scrubbed from replays – and despised Morales further for his intended cherrypicking of Barrera’s weakened self. Morales knew he could cut Barrera’s lights with a proper right, and Barrera knew Morales couldn’t cut his lights in a lifetime of trying. That leavened the match further; two rational actors harmonizing their ways to an irrational conclusion, two men thinking an act inevitable when for at least one actor it was impossible.

Then Barrera knuckleclipped Morales’s aquiline nose with a left uppercut crunchy enough to make El Terrible breathe mouthly the duration. Asked afterwards about his broken nose Morales said he didn’t remember it happening because it didn’t matter.

As Barrera’s fortunes rose after he got decisioned by Morales in their first match, Feb. 2000, undressing Naseem Hamed 14 months later in a 36-minute denuding that remains the genre’s standard a decade and a half hence, Morales’s fortunes rose after he got decisioned a second time by Barrera (in what probably was the only correct scorekeeping result of the trilogy): Fewer than four months after his rubbermatch with Barrera, El Terrible decisioned Manny Pacquiao. Reflect on that as you finish digesting what hyperbolic gravy HBO ladled over the Kovalev turkey Saturday: Morales went directly from the completion of one historic trilogy, losing to Barrera, to the commencement of another, beating Pacquiao.

Did we know how lucky we were? Hard to say. I recall thinking Morales was a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, as was Pacquiao, obviously, at the time he decisioned Pacquiao, but as I’d just begun writing about our beloved sport I didn’t know quite how unique Morales was.

If you don’t task yourself with 1,000 weekly words about boxing its dead periods are not so acute. If pressed I might be able to name unaided a dozen prizefights I recall between Barrera-Morales 1 and 3 (some of that time I spent residing in Mexico where there was a walking-range sportsbar that televised every fight) but I have no recollection of what I had to think about when no fights were happening like I do now. That’s part of the reason I have an opinion about Saturday’s fare. It’s not the sort of thing I’d opine about without this column, which you surely inferred from the majority of this column’s being written about a wellworn something, that happened in 2004, and you inferred it because by virtue of your even reading this you’re helping sustain my enduring pride (and gratitude) about how much smarter my reader is than what lessdiscerning peers congregate round more popular writers’ reports (and you can know who you are like this: If you think the last part of this runon sentence is about you, it is).

Saturday’s HBO card and next Saturday’s card and nextnext Saturday’s card have the feel of a kid hustling to clean up his room when mom threatens to suspend his allowance. It’s not what he wants to be doing with his Saturday night, but he does want to stay in good graces however poorly he’s behaved since his last allowance, and if he can get it done fast and vigorously enough he can point to his effort at least: Cancel your subscription if you want to, Mom, if your mind was already made-up, fine, but don’t say it’s because I didn’t try – I gave you five boxing telecasts in six weeks at the end of 2017!

It’s a fair point, and as aficionados are nearly irrational about boxing as moms’re about their sons, it should serve to retain the 600,000 of us faithful souls who reliably watch things weak as Saturday’s card.

Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry

Follow all the action as Sergey Kovalev looks to regain the WBO Light Heavyweight title against Vyacheslav Shabranskyy.  The action begins at 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT with Junior Lightweight contest between former world champions Jason Sosa and Yuriorkis Gamboa followed by a Light Heavyweight fight between Sullivan Barrera and Felix Valera

THE PAGE WILL UPDATE AUTOMATICALLY.  NO BROWSER REFRESH NEEDED

Round 1: Kovalev  lands a right..Good jab.Body shot..Right from Shabranskyy..BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES SHABRANSKYY..BIG RIGHT AND DOWN GOES SHABRANSKYY..

Round 2 Hard right from Kovalev..HARD LEFT AND SHABRANSKYY GOES DOWN..Right rocks Shabranskyy..HARD ONSLAUGHT AND THE THE FIGHT IS OVER

Round 1 HARD LEFT HOOK AND DOWN GOES BARRERA..RIGHT HAND AND DOWN GOES VALERA

Round 2 Left hook from Valera..Good left hook from Barrera..Valera warned for a low blow..Good right from Barrera..Barrera cut over his left eye..Hard right to body from Barrera..

Round 3 VALERA DEDUCTED A POINT FOR LOW BLOW..Left hook from Valera..Left hook to body from Barrera..

Round 4 Good overhand right from Barrera…Hard right…Right to body..right..

Round 5

Round 6 VALERA DEDUCTED ANOTHER POINT FOR LOW BLOW..Barrera lands a right.  Valera lands a left..2 lefts Barrera…Good body shot..Right hand..Straight right to the chin..Hard combination

Round 7  Right from Barrera..Trading body shots..Good right from Barrera..Left uppercut

Round 8  VALERA DEDUCTED ANOTHER POINT FOR LOW BLOWS..Good uppercut from Barrera..

Round 9 BARRERA DEDUCTED A POINT FOR A LOW BLOW..Good left to body and right from Barrera..

Round 10  Big left hook from Valera..Body shot…Barrera lands a body shot..Big left hook

98-88, 97-90, 97-89 for SULLIVAN BARRERA

Round 1 Hard right from Gamboa…Good body shot

Round 2 2 Body shots from Gamboa..Sosa lands a left hook…Cut over Gamboa’s left eye..Good over hand right from Sosa

Round 3

Round 4 Good body shot from Gamboa..

Round 5 Hard right from Gamboa..Good right from Sosa…Right From Gamboa..

Round 6  Left from Gamboa..

Round 7  RIGHT HAND MAKES GAMBOA GLOVE TOUCH CANVAS FOR A KNOCKDOWN..Good left hook from Gamboa..Good right from Sosa..Body shot..

Round 8  Right from Sosa..Left to Body..Left..Right to body

Round 9 Right from Sosa

Round 10 GAMBOA DEDUCTED A POINT FOR HOLDING…

94-94; 95-93; 96-92 for YURIORKIS GAMBOA

NEW YORK CITY –Sergey Kovalev (31-2-1, 27 KO) returned to pre-Andre Ward fight form and captured the WBO world light heavyweight title, blasting through Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (19-2, 16 KO), sending him to the canvas three times inside two rounds en route to a TKO victory.

After a brief “feeling-out” period, where Kovalev was momentarily backed up by a Shabranskyy jab, the 34 year-old Russian marched forward, uncorking massive right hands that seemingly landed at will.  It was midway through the first when a “Krusher” right landed flush on the side of Shabranskyy’s head and sent him down to the mat for the first time.

Upon beating the count, Kovalev greeted his 30 year-old Ukrainian counterpart with more haymakers and eventually connected with an even bigger right that collapsed Shabranskyy to the mat again.  The “Lionheart” beat referee Harvey Dock’s ten count and was able to survive the round.

In the second round, Kovalev picked up right where he left off, fighting as ruthless and relentless as ever, plodding forward and unloading vicious bombs that continually connected with an alarming success rate.

 A left-right-left combo midway through the second sent Shabranskyy down for the third time.  Again, Shabranskyy beat the ten-count, but this time he stood on extremely unsteady legs.  Kovalev continued to wail on an absent Shabranskyy until referee Harvey Dock stepped between the two combatants and called a half to the bout at the 2:36 mark of round two.

It was Kovalev’s first performance since dropping two straight fights to Andre Ward, both controversial in their own right.  In their first meeting, Ward scored a split decision victory, despite hitting the canvas in the second round.  In their rematch, referee Tony Weeks controversially waved off the match in the eighth round after a series of borderline low-blow body shots hurt the 34 year-old Russian and left him defenseless.

 Tonight also marked Kovalev’s first fight working with head trainer, Abror Tursunpulatov.  Previously, Kovalev had been working with John David Jackson.  Rumors of a fractured relationship between Kovalev and Jackson began to swirl between the first and second Ward fights, and in October, the inevitable parting of ways become official when Kovalev formally announced Tursunpulatov as his new coach.

 Prior to tonight’s devastating loss, Shabranskyy was having himself a solid 2017, scoring back to back stoppage wins over Larry Pryor and Todd Unthank May, respectively.  Those wins were enough to land him his first title shot tonight against Kovalev.

 Shabranskyy’s only other loss came courtesy of Sullivan Barrera in December 2016.

 Barrera, who scored a unanimous decision victory earlier in the night against Dominican, Felix Valera, is certainly a candidate to fight for Kovalev’s title in the near future.

 “It’s my goal to be the best in the division,” Kovalev said afterward.  “Here tonight was great boxing for me and I love boxing and I want to make great fights.

Bombs Away — Barrera Scores UD Win Over Valera

Sullivan Barrera (21-1, 14 KO) out-slugged and earned a ten round unanimous decision victory over Felix Valera (15-2, 13 KO) in a light heavyweight contest marred by low-blows.

 There were fireworks from the opening bell and midway through the bout’s first round, the free swinging Dominican, Valera, caught his Cuban counterpart with a monster left hook that sent Barrera down the canvas.  The 35 year-old Barrera was able to shake the knockdown and score one of his own later in the round right as the bell sounded, when a glancing Barrera shot sent an off-balance Valera to the mat.

 The first of four point deductions administered by referee Mike Ortega, Jr. for low blows came in the second round when Valera nailed Barrera below the waistline for the second time.  Valera would also be deducted a point in the sixth and eighth rounds.  Barrera was deducted a point for low blows in the ninth.

 It was a bombs away type affair, with both fighters swinging wildly at times, knowing that they possessed the power to end the fight with one punch.  But time and time again, however, it was Barrera who landed the more meaningful, significant shots.

In an attempt to rattle Barrera flamboyant Valera tried anything he could to disrupt the always-composed Cuban.  The 29 year-old Dominican flailed his arms wildly, stuck his tongue out at Barrera, and even jumped up and down — all to no avail.

 At the end of ten, all judges scored the bout widely for Barrera.  Don Ackerman had it 98-88, Tom Schreck 97-89, and Glenn Feldman 97-90.

 It was another solid win for Barrera, whose only defeat came at the hands of Andre Ward in March 2016.  Barrera last fought in July against Joe Smith, Jr., where much like tonight, he rose off the canvas to score a unanimous decision victory.

 For the durable Valera, it was his second professional defeat, the other coming courtesy of undefeated superstar, Dmitry Bivol.

Gamboa Earns Controversial Decision Over Sosa

Yuriorkis Gamboa (28-2, 17 KO) scored a controversial ten round majority decision victory against Jason Sosa (20-3-4, 15 KO) in what many viewed as a make or break fight for the former three-division world champion.

It was clear early on that the 35 year-old former Olympic Gold Medalist’s gameplan was to stick-and-move, get-in and get-out.  Conversely, Sosa’s plan was to plod forward, apply as much pressure as he could, while landing the bigger, more significant power punches.

After a first round where both fighters staked their flag, Sosa unloaded a looping right that caught Gamboa on the button as the second round drew to a close.  Any Sosa attempt to throw follow up shots were quickly squandered by the dinging of the bell.

Gamboa got right back to work in the middle rounds, however, staying true to his stick-and-move gameplan, landing a few shots, then slipping most of Sosa’s return-fire.

Sosa began to swing the momentum back his way in the sixth, and in the seventh, a Sosa left hook clipped an off-balance Gamboa whose gloved fist made contact with the canvas.  Referee Ron Lipton immediately ruled a knockdown.

The final three rounds saw good action, with Sosa coming forward, and Gamboa trying to hit and move.

In the tenth round, referee Ron Lipton controversially deducted a point from Gamboa for holding.

At the conclusion of ten, judge Robin Taylor scored the contest even, 94-94.  She was overruled by judges John McKaie and Don Trella, who scored the bout 95-93 and 96-92, respectively.  15rounds.com scored the fight 95-94 for Gamboa.

Sosa was initially slated to face Robinson Castellanos (24-13, 14 KO), who scored an upset TKO win against Gamboa in May.  However, an injury earlier this month forced the Mexican to withdraw, and Gamboa was called in as a late replacement.

The win makes it two straight for “El Ciclon” since suffering that shocking defeat to Castellanos.

For Sosa, the tough-luck loss his is second in a row, the other coming back in April courtesy of Vasily Lomachenko.

 “It was a good fight.  I didn’t have enough time to train.  I only had three weeks.  I didn’t have time to get ready.  I needed 2 or 3 more weeks to lose the weight correctly,” Gamboa said afterward.

 He continued, “Of course the decision was good.  I think won every round.  Except for the knockdown and the point deduction.”

 Sosa also spoke afterward, saying, “I was a fun fight.  I took some breaks but I thought I did enough to win. I know I did enough to win the fight.”

Murtazaliev Destroys Galvan In 5, Wins IBA Super Welterweight Title

Bakhram Murtazaliev (11-0, 9 KO) methodically broke down Carlos Galvan (16-6-1, 15 KO) before closing the show in spectacular fashion in the fifth round of a super welterweight contest slated for ten.

 The heavy-handed Russian, who operates under the tutelage of Sergey Kovalev’s new trainer, Abror Tursunpulatov, stalked his Colombian counterpart round after round.  Like waves on a shore, Murtazaliev kept coming forward, forcing Galvan to fight going backwards, something he was clearly uncomfortable doing.

 After four rounds of systematically crushing Galvan’s will, the 24 year-old Russian broke through in the fifth, sending Galvan to the mat with a vicious one-two.  About a minute later, Murtazaliev finished off his wounded foe with a thundering left hook to the liver that put Galvan on the mat for good.  Referee Ricky Gonzalez opted not to administer a ten-count and instead, called a stop to the contest at the 1:31 mark of round five.

It was the fourth stoppage defeat in six overall losses for Galvan.  It was also his fourth time fighting in the United States, and his fourth loss.

Galarza Grabs UD Win In Return To Ring

 Brooklyn’s Frank Galarza (18-2-2, 11 KO) returned to the ring after a fourteen month layoff and scored a unanimous decision win over Chicago’s Jamie Herrera (15-5-1, 8 KO) in an eight round super welterweight contest.

 The victory was hard-earned and well-deserved for Galarza, who had dropped his previous two contests — a TKO loss to Jarrett Hurd and a majority decision loss to veteran Ishe Smith, a fight that saw Galarza hit the canvas in the second round.

 It was a gutsy affair between two veteran prizefighters who each were coming off lengthy layoffs.  For Galarza, who in July inked a new promotional deal with Main Events, the fight marked just his second fight in the last twenty-four months, and the first since September 2016.  For the Mexican-American Herrera, it was just his first fight since November 2016, when he suffered UD loss to Taras Shelestyuk.

The fight was a back and forth contest, with a predictable, but entertaining ebb and flow.  Round after round, both fighters willingly engaged, eating a few shots before landing their own.  But while both fighters enjoyed success over the duration of the contest, it was the 33 year-old Galarza who punches landed cleaner and with more frequency.

In the fifth round, a Galarza right hand opened up a cut over his 28 year-old counterparts left eye.  In the seventh, a booming right to the body by Galarza hurt Herrera, hunching him forward where he was met with a flurry of Galarza lefts and rights until Herrera was able to weather the storm.

The Chicagoan’s high-pressure style was both a blessing and a curse for him in that it seemed to slowly wear down Galarza, but also left him vulnerable to Galarza stick-and-move pot-shots as he tried to work his way inside his reach.  
At the end of eight rounds, all three judges scored the contest for Galarza.  Robin Taylor scored it a shutout 80-72, while referees John McKaie and Allen Nace saw it 78-74 and 79-73, respectively.

 “I feel good after a 14 month layoff, shaking off some ring rust. I’m so grateful for Main Events to put me on their card,” Galarza remarked afterward.

He continued, “Hopefully I’ll be back in the Garden soon. It felt great, it was where I belong. It felt right. Not many places you can call home, but this is one for me.”

 Galarza also acknowledged his legion of fans in the crowd tonight.  “I’m grateful for my supporters, for people who waited it out for me,” he said.  “As a Brooklyn native, a person from New York who’s been around, they support me and that’s the best thing.”

Nursultanov Stays Perfect, Hands Moon First Loss Inside Two

 In a battle that pitted two undefeated middleweights against one another, Kazakhstan’s Meiirim Nursultanov (5-0, 4 KO) made quick work of Marietta, Georgia’s Eric Moon (7-1, 6 KO), stopping him inside two rounds.

 It was all Nursultanov from start to finish, as he pressured and battered Moon from the opening bell.  Midway through the second, Nursultanov pinned Moon against the ropes and wailed away, mixing shots to the body and head.  At the 1:54 mark of the second round, referee Ricky Gonzalez decided Moon had eaten too many uncontested shots and called a halt to the contest.

 The win makes it four kayos in five professional fights for the Egis Klimas managed, Main Events promoted, Nursultanov.

Thunder In His Hands, LeShawn Rodriguez Stops Duarte In 3

 In a middleweight contest slated for six, former New York Golden Gloves Champion and 2016 US Olympic alternate “Lightning” LeShawn Rodriguez (8-0, 7 KO) powered his way past Sao Paolo’s Brazil’s Alex Duarte (13-3-1, 10 KO) en route to a third round KO victory.

It was an impressive display of patience, prowess, and power from the 24 year-old New York native, who balanced his attack, working to both the head and body of his 37 year-old counterpart.

Midway through the second, Rodriguez ripped a left to the body that put Duarte on his knees.  The Brazilian beat Steve Smoger’s ten count and was able to survive the round.

In the third however, a Rodriguez left-right combo to the body and head, sent Duarte to the canvas for good, where he was unable to beat Smogers count.  The official time of stoppage was the 1:48 mark of round three.

It was Duarte’s third loss of his career, all of which have come via stoppage.

“It feels good always to win, but to win by knockout is better, sensational, spectacular,” Rodriguez said afterward.  “I felt at home. A lot of people came out to see me. This is the first time I’ve fought in New York since I turned pro.”

Gogokhia Stays Perfect, Decisions Abreau

 Enriko Gogokhia remained perfect (7-0, 3 KO) with a unanimous decision win over Jose Antonio Abreau (13-3, 8 KO) in a six round welterweight contest.

Action picked up toward the end of the second round when the southpaw, Gogokhia, floored his Dominican counterpart.  The 29 year-old Abrea beat the ten count and was immediately met with a barrage of punches as the round drew to a close.

In the next few rounds, the Egis Klimas managed Gogokhia, pressed his foot on the gas and forced the action, continually getting the better of the boxer’s exchanges.

In the end, all three judges scored it widely for the 26 year-old Georgian native, Gogokhia.  Scores were 60-53 and 59-54, twice.  The judges’ decision resulted in Abreau’s third career loss, all of which have been on US soil.

 “It was a good fight, good opponent with a good record,” Gogokhia said afterward.  “It was harder because the opponent was ready and he also wanted to win. I was just getting started by the last round. Still, a victory is a victory.”

Villareal Kicks Off Pro Campaign With Win

The undercard of Sergey Kovalev vs. Vyacheslav Shabranskyy kicked off with the successful debut of former two-time New York Golden Gloves champion, Ismael Villareal (1-0).  The former amatuer standout scored a unimous decision victory over Race Sawyer (0-5) in a four round super welterweight contest.

Villareal, who fights out of John’s Gym in the Bronx is trained by his father, former welterweight Otilio Villareal, who over his 32 bout pro career, shared the ring with the likes of Zab Judah, Kermit Cintron, and Hector Camacho.

Villareal controlled the contest bell to bell, bruising and battering Utah’s Sawyer with head snapping blows.  The 21 year old Bronx debutant would have benefitted by putting in more work to his foe’s body, but that was not on the agenda tonight.

All in all, Villareal won’t have too much to complain about tonight.  The Ecuadorian-American pitched a shutout on all three judges scorecards. Don Trella had it 40-35, and John McKaie and Robin Taylor scored it 40-36.

 After the contest, Villareal did speak about having some debut butterflies.

 “It totally felt different than the amateurs,” he said. “There were so many more people looking at me. I was trying to look good, I was focused on the knockout because it was my very first professional fight.

“I learned I have to work harder and be careful not to get hit.”

Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events:

It’s Thanksgiving week in New York City. It’s a time for people to consider what they are thankful for; to count their blessings. I can speak for everyone at Main Events and say how thankful we are to have the opportunity to put on a show for boxing fans at the greatest venue for boxing in the United States, Madison Square Garden. We’re thankful we can offer these talented, dedicated athletes the chance to reach for their goals and better their lives through boxing. Tickets starting at $50 are still available through Ticketmaster and the Madison Square Garden box office for Saturday’s event or you can watch live on HBO World Championship Boxing® starting at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time.

Our card features two bouts in the competitive light heavyweight division: Sullivan Barrera vs. Felix Valera and our main event, the Next Chapter in Sergey Kovalev’s career, the WBO Light Heavyweight World Title fight against Vyacheslav “Lion Heart-Chingonskyy” Shabranskyy.

The opening bout of the HBO telecast brings together two action-oriented junior lightweights, Jason Sosa and Yuriorkis Gamboa, in a must win 10-round fight. On our off TV undercard, we have three talented and undefeated Eastern European fighters out of the famed Boxing Laboratory in Oxnard, California with Bakhram Murtazaliev, who is co-promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions, facing Carlos Galvan in a ten-round super welterweight bout, a battle of the unbeaten between middleweights Meiirim Nursultanov and Eric Moon and Enriko Gogokhia versus Jose Antonio Abreu in a welterweight showdown.

And, a little treat for all the New York fans, we have three born-and-bred local fighters getting the chance to perform in front of their friends and family on Thanksgiving weekend. They include Brooklyn’s Frank Galarza making his Madison Square Garden debut against Jaime Herrera, Long Island-native LeShawn “Lightning” Rodriguez, who has promised to put on his own Winter Spectacular versus Alex Duarte and, making his pro debut, Ismael Villarreal, from the Bronx, will face Race Sawyer.

We are thankful to our sponsors Medoff Vodka and Leon.RU. We are thankful for all our partners in this card; working with so many good people proves you cannot succeed alone. I want to thank Golden Boy Promotions, Shuan Boxing Promotions, Peltz Promotions and Krusher Promotions for a wonderful working relationship making this event possible. I want to thank HBO, especially Peter Nelson and Tony Walker, for their unwavering support. We will not let you down. As always, we thank you for the opportunity.

Peter Nelson, Executive Vice President – HBO Sports:

I want to thank all the press for being here. It’s a great privilege to be associated with such a great event and to see you all turn out here before a holiday. I want to thank, first and foremost, everyone at Main Events, constant professionals. We always know we can rely on Main Events to, not only deliver us a great show, but also on the undercard, off HBO, Kathy is giving us a glimpse into the future. The fighters she just named are all apart of budding generation you will be seeing on HBO in the coming years. I would also like to thank the different parties working together in order to make this event happen, obviously Krusher Promotions as well as Golden Boy Promotions. I want to thank everyone on team Barrera as well as team Valera, in addition to Russell Peltz. This guy gives the best talks in all of boxing and he is just sitting there right now. I don’t understand what we are doing here. Every time he gets up here he schools everybody. You never want to talk after Russell Peltz.

I want to thank everyone who is really committed to making the best fights in boxing and constantly working together in order to do that. It is important to work with people who want to put the fights together that the fighters want. They have to be willing to work with anybody, anywhere and the fighters we want on the network are the ones who want to fight anyone, anytime and anywhere. As I can attest with all these fighters up here, I have never had that problem with any of them. They have never turned down a fight. Those are the kind of fighters people want to watch. Those are the kind of fighters that make the fights people want to see. And those are the kind of fights that lead to bigger and better things for each of the fighters involved. Our start time is 10 p.m. and we have a triple header.

We have all action fights on HBO. In the super featherweight division with Jason Sosa and [Yuriorkis] Gamboa are going to compete in order to see what the big next step is to come in their career. The light heavyweight division, as Kathy said, is a stacked division. Two great fights there. Maybe we see the winners meet up down the road. We see some others fighters who are in great position to try and take dominance over an open division right now and have a world title fight like Sergey vs. Shabranskyy. If you aren’t going to be at home or watching it on television, set your DVR. Hopefully you will be at the arena on Saturday night. We look forward to seeing you all. Thanks very much.

Joel Fisher, Executive Vice President – Madison Square Garden:

I really want to welcome everybody here to this final press conference at MSG. This is really an exciting time at The Garden as we get ready to host three consecutive weekends of great fights. We haven’t done that since the 1960s. The two guys that are fighting this weekend will follow in the footsteps of all the great boxers and fighters that fought in the MSG ring. Sergey is really one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world and we know that he is ready to start the next chapter of his brilliant career. We are thrilled to host the light heavyweight world championship fight between Sergey and Vyacheslav. It will be another night in a long history of great fights at The Garden. As all you know The Theater is actually a tremendous place to host a fight and view one. We are sure all the loyal fans will come out. It’s just going to be a great atmosphere on fight night with top quality boxing at The Garden. Those two things are synonymous. The Garden has been in the boxing business for over 130 years. This will just add to the rich history of all the MSG fighters: Sugar Ray Robinson, Ali, Joe Frazier and the list goes on and one. As I said this kicks off three fights in a row. Three weekends in a row so it really is an exciting time for us. I really want to thank Kathy, Peter, their staffs from myself, Sal Federico and my staff. It’s just been great to work together with everybody. I want to take this time to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving. As Kathy said its Thanksgiving weekend and for everybody to come out is great. Hopefully everyone has a great Thanksgiving, a great holiday and end it with a great night of boxing here at MSG. I look forward to seeing everyone and have a great holiday.

Duva:

Finally, to the media present and watching live, thank you for your time and attention. I promise you, in the months and years to come, you’ll remember you were here to witness The Next Chapter in Sergey Kovalev’s career.

We have an exciting undercard – this is a full Thanksgiving meal with plenty on the table. Opening our bout on the HBO card is former unified featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (27-2, 17 KOs) stepping in to fight former WBA World Super Featherweight Champion, Jason Sosa (20-2-4, 15 KOs) in a ten-round super featherweight fight. Gamboa is a native of Guantanamo, Cuba, an Olympic gold medalist. This is a fight he wanted. Sosa is one of our many local fighters on the undercard, from Camden, New Jersey. These guys both want to start the next chapter of their careers on a winning note.

Russell Peltz, President – Peltz Boxing:

When they get to this part of the press conference, they start with the main event. Teddy Brenner was the greatest matchmaker in the history of boxing. For those of you who don’t know who he was, he was the matchmaker here at MSG from the late 50s to the late 70s before that he ran what they call the House of Upsets in the Eastern Parkway of Brooklyn where about a third of the 200 main events he made became rematches in The Garden. No one will ever surpass Teddy because Teddy promoted fights, he did not promote fighters. He had three criteria for what made a good fight: 1. Do the styles mesh? Gamboa and Sosa are each 5’6. They each try to hurt people. 2. Does the fight lead somewhere? The winner has been promised a shot at a world title. 3. The most important is, would I buy a ticket to see this fight? Absolutely. That’s why I think it’s the most compelling, the most intriguing, the most interesting fight on this card. Gamboa cannot afford a loss. People say he is washed up. He is 25-2. I don’t know how washed up you can be at 25-2. We expect to see the best Gamboa there has been. The one I have ran into here a few years ago when he knocked out a fighter I had Rogers Mtagwa. Jason Sosa is coming off a defeat to Lomachenko and I was in the dressing room with him after that fight. It was a tearful scene. Peter Nelson from HBO came in and said, ‘I promise I won’t forget what you did for us this night. You stepped in when no one else wanted to fight Lomachenko at that time for any reasonable amount of money.’ Jason took the challenge and everybody said it’s the end of his career and here we are back again. Peter made good on his promise and we are one fight away from fighting for the world title. We would love to fight any of the guys that are fighting on the HBO show on December 9th.When Robert Diaz or Eric Gomez or Peter Nelson call me I don’t even say hello. I say will take it because that’s what fighters do; they fight. I’m really looking forward to this thank you.

Jason Sosa, former WBA Super Featherweight World Champion:

First I don’t really have a lot to say because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we are not gonna have the privilege to eat at least four or five plates. I would just like to give thanks. Thanks to the media. Thanks to Peter Nelson and Main Events. I am thankful for my family, my two kids and my mom. And I’m thankful for the opportunity to, once again, showcase my talent on HBO.

Raul Rivas, Trainer of Jason Sosa:

First and foremost I want to thank the man up above; without him nothing is possible. Thanks to the media, HBO, of course, Golden Boy and Krusher Promotions for giving us the opportunity to showcase again on HBO. I want to thank Gamboa’s team for taking the fight. It’s going to be a good fight, a perfect fight with two aggressive, strong fighters .The are the great height for each other and they both need this fight. We know if we lose, we will have to sit for a while. He loses and he has to sit for a while. The best thing for me is that I know that Gamboa is going to bring the best out of Jason. Loma is a special talent. One like that comes every ten years. We fought. Loma, when no one wanted to fight him. We relinquished our WBA title to take that fight, which says a lot about that young man. Russell Peltz I thank you for believing in us. I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I know that you are missing your family like we are. And for the fighters in general, like Jason said, they cannot have three meals and enjoy the family and the Thanksgiving. This sport is very demanding with time. So thank you for taking your time.

Robert Diaz, matchmaker – Golden Boy Promotions:

It’s going to be tough, going against Russell Peltz and Jolene Mizzone [Main Events’ matchmaker] on the same night! But I want to thank Peter. Everybody is thanking everybody. Of course, thanks to the media, thanks to the fans, thanks to Madison Square Garden; it’s a privilege to be here. But Peter, thank you for not focusing on those pretty records, for focusing on fighters that want to fight and bringing them back even after a loss or two because these are fighters that want to fight. I’ve got to disagree with Russell on one thing. In this fight, the super featherweights, they have a lot in common to the main event. All four fighters know what a loss or victory means for their career. In all four cases, neither can afford a loss. In one case, the winner goes on to fight for a world title. In the main event, the winner will walk out a world champion. You all know Gamboa. You know what he can do. He’s a special fighter. It’s all about preparing. They put in the hard work. He is more than ready.

Yuriorkis Gamboa, former IBF and WBA Featherweight World Champion

Thank you for the new opportunity to try again on HBO. (Spanish from here, no translation)

Jesse Rodriguez, Manager – Yuriorkis Gamboa

What an event this weekend. I know everyone’s thanking, this is the right time to thank HBO. Peter, thank you for believing in Yuri and giving him another opportunity. To Golden Boy thank you for bringing Gamboa back. The guy has fought four times this year when previously in the last four or five years, he’s fought only four times of five times. Thank you Golden Boy; you’re going to see a great fight this weekend. Gamboa is definitely ready. We’ve got one of the best in the world and we thank him for taking on the challenge. Gamboa has put in a lot of work and you’re going to see it this weekend. Thank you again everybody and thank God for the opportunity.

Duva:

I think of this like our Thanksgiving boxing dinner, where we have an amazing appetizer that whets our appetite for the rest of the meal. With all due respect for Russell, we’re now going to move on to the main course and the dessert. The light heavyweight division is on fire right now and we really can’t get enough. We’re excited to feature a second top fight in the light heavyweight division as our co-feature Saturday night. Cuban Sullivan Barrera is 20-1, 14 KOs and former WBA Interim Light Heavyweight World Champion Felix “Mangu” Valera is 15-1, 13 KOs of the Dominican Republic are making it a hot island showdown. This bout is presented by Main Events in association with Shuan Boxing Promotions and we’re very happy to work with them. Sullivan is ranked #1 one at light heavyweight by the WBA. If he can defeat Valera, Sullivan will be first in line for Dmitry Bivol’s WBA Light Heavyweight World Championship belt as the mandatory challenger. Sullivan is another distinguished amateur, a former member of the Cuban National Team who defected from Cuba in 2009. He quickly made a name for himself in the light heavyweight division winning his first 17 bouts, with 12 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

Sullivan Barrera, Ranked #1 in WBA:

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for coming. My English is not very well, but I would like to try. I’m so happy for this day here at The Garden. Thank you to HBO, Peter Nelson and my promoter, Main Events. This weekend is a great weekend, Thanksgiving. We work hard at the gym to put on a great show for the fans, the boxing fans. My opponent, Felix Valera, I respect him. He’s a great boxer too. We will put on a great show for the boxing fans. Thank you everyone, and see you Saturday.

Derik Santos, Trainer – Sullivan Barrera:

Hello to everyone, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. I’d like to thank Peter Nelson, HBO, Madison Square Garden, our promoter Main Events and Luis Molina, our manager. I’d also like to thank Sullivan, because I tell you he’s a pleasure to work with. We’ve worked hard to be here. I’d like to thank Team Valera for accepting the opportunity. Like he said, it’s cold here but we’re going to bring the heat on Saturday night and we will put on a show for the fans.

Duva:

Sullivan will have his hands full with Felix Valera, a knockout artist with 13 knockouts in his 15 professional wins. His only loss is to the man waiting in line for the winner of this fight, Dmitry Bivol. This is the first professional bout in the United States for Felix. You can’t do much better starting out making your US debut in Madison Square Garden.

Felix Valera, Former WBA Interim Light Heavyweight World Champion

First, I want to thank Main Events, HBO and my promoter, Shuan Boxing. I feel happy to be here, feel happy to put on a good fight and Saturday night you’ll see a good fight from me. For me, it’s an honor to fight such a great fighter like Sullivan Barrera. It’s also an honor to want to fight all the best in the light heavyweight division.

Belgica Péña, Shuan Boxing:

We’re happy to be here in the United States, providing a showcase for Dominican fighters. Everybody will see he’s talented and he belongs on this level.

Luis Perez, Trainer of Felix Valera:

I also want to thank Main Events, Shuan Boxing and HBO. I feel we’re actually fighting the best fighter in the light heavyweight division. It’s only my opinion once again, no disrespect to nobody. He’s from a long Cuban boxing school. He’s a great counterpuncher; he’s got power. He’s been down and got up off the floor to win by knockout. So in my opinion, we have the toughest fight in the light heavyweight division. Coming through Saturday the way that we planned it, I feel we are on top once again. To me, Sullivan Barrera is the best in the light heavyweight division. We prepared very well for him. Thanks to him and thanks to Main Events for giving us this opportunity.

Duva:

When we put together Sergey Kovalev’s first fight in The Next Chapter of his career, he wanted it to be memorable and exciting: a real test of his new approach and attitude. We found the right opponent in a guy with the longest nickname in boxing, and it says everything about his come-forward style, Lion Heart.
Diaz:
It’s such a pleasure to be working with different promoters putting their best against our best fighters. At the end of the day, you’re going to get the best fights and the fans are going to walk away happy. Jolene [Mizzone], you owe me. This is a tremendous fight. I want to thank Team Krusher for this opportunity. Utmost respect for you and your team, Egis, we go way back. This is a real fight. This is a real fight because of what it means to both fighters. Put the world title aside, which is very meaningful, this fight means the next chapter, not only for you, but also for Slava. We are very confident because he has a good team behind him.

Manny Robles, trainer – Slava Shabranskyy:

Thank you all for being here today. I’d like to thank HBO, Main Events and, of course, Golden Boy. Thank you very much, for the opportunity, for my fighter here, Slava, to fight for the world title. I just want to say, we had a great camp, great sparring. It was probably the best camp we’ve ever had. I’d like to thank everyone for being here today and I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving. Saturday night we’re going to walk away with the world title, God willing. We’re well-prepared and we’re ready for, with all due respect to Kovalev, we’re ready for everything that may come our way.

Slava Shabranskyy – WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight Champion:

First I want to thank my promoter for believeing in me and giving me the opportunity to fight the best. A fight in Madison Square Garden alone is a dream come true. I’m now fighting for the title, it’s an amazing feeling. I’m working really hard to be where I am now. I’m ready, let’s go!

Duva:

Finally, our former unified light heavyweight champion in the main event sits here today knowing what it is like to feel thankful and to understand the importance of teamwork. Sometimes life delivers a hard lesson but you can learn and move forward. You can be stronger and wiser. You can reach your goals for a second time in life. How many of us can say we’ve reached the very top even once? Sergey Kovalev has been a world champion. He rose from nothing – you all know his story. There is no reason to believe he can’t do it again. It will be exciting to watch it happen. I think it will be even more satisfying for us than the first time we saw it. We have heard from a lot of people who have talked to Sergey and watched him these past few weeks during training – including many of you. They have pulled us aside and told us how amazed they are at his change in appearance and his change in attitude. When Sergey defeated the great Bernard Hopkins, Bernard told Sergey right after the right he would be world champion as long as he wanted to be. He was right – Bernard is always right! I you don’t believe me, he’ll tell you! It turned out the only person who could really beat Sergey Kovalev was himself. Now that he has learned this lesson, he is ready to begin the next chapter. Everyone in the light heavyweight division should be very, very afraid of what a focused Sergey Kovalev can do.

Egis Klimas, Manager – Sergey Kovalev:

Hello everybody, good afternoon. Welcome to New York City, Mecca of Boxing, Madison Square Garden. As always it is a pleasure to be here. I wanted to thank everybody and I want to thank, just not to repeat it, and repeat it again, I want to thank everyone who put in an effort to this fight. I’m very honored to represent a different, a completely different Sergey Kovalev than what I knew in 2009. In the beginning of his career, he was very patient and we walked very long road to get into the position. After he became a champion, he started doing thing a champion isn’t supposed to do. He didn’t pay much attention about his training; he was always on his own. He was trying to tell trainers and everybody what to do, how to do. After every fight, he used to go back home to Russia, spending, two or three months there until he’s going to get a next fight. Finally he got that last call, which reached his mind. I was trying to give some advice during his career but he didn’t pay much attention. He just walked on the other side and did what he’s supposed to do. Usually we can’t give to a grown man advice; he’s not going to take it seriously until it reaches into his mind. He got that bell. Somebody told him, ‘you’ve got to stop it. You’ve got to go a different road if you want to go somewhere in this life.’ I’m very happy, I’m really happy to represent a different Sergey Kovalev.

On another note, as soon as I walked in today to Madison Square Garden, Robert Diaz stepped to me and he said, ‘You know what, Slava got a phone call when he landed in New York. His wife called him and said guess what? Our children are playing. Both their children playing in the background and the two men are going to step in the ring and going to fight each other.’ That’s a wonderful story. I’ll see you guys on Saturday night, have a good time.

Duva:

No matter what any of us say, no matter what Sergey says, whatever story we have to tell you, what really matters is what we’re all going to see Saturday night. That is really the only thing that means anything .Up until that moment, we have to wait. Until then, it is my privilege to introduce the newly energized and focused Krusher Kovalev.

Sergey Kovalev, former unified light heavyweight world champion:

Hi everyone, I’m happy to be here at Madison Square Garden and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I want to say thank you to HBO for this opportunity to get back on this level of boxing, where I can prove for myself who I am. Also, thank you to my manager, to my team, to Kathy Duva and to Madison Square Garden. I’m here fighting for all boxing fans, here and worldwide. I want to thank God, that he blessed me, and that I’m still alive, that I’ve reloaded and got a lot of new motivation in my head, mentally. From my last losses, I didn’t break. These losses didn’t break me mentally. It was a good experience for me. I should follow my goals on a clear road without any wrong things, any baggage on my back. Right now, I want to thank Golden Boy Promotions for this fight and especially for Slava Shabranskyy. I respect this guy because he’s a real fighter. His nickname proves he’s a Lion, a Lion Heart, and we will show you on Saturday a great fight. Because on top of this will be the WBO title. From the WBO title, I began my first successful boxing career. I will repeat it and after this we can speak of my future boxing career. Thank you to everyone who came here. I love life; I love boxing.

Duva:

For boxing people, this is hallowed ground. Every time I walk in the door here, I remember the first time I came here. It was more than 40 years ago. Main Events is about to celebrate our 40th anniversary next year if you can believe that. Many of you weren’t born yet. I remember being here and I took a picture of Joe Frazier. He actually stood right in front of me, I had my camera and I took a picture. It’s still hanging across from my desk. I look at it every day, black and white and fading, but it’s him. There’s one thing you gain from having this many years on you, experience. It’s learning that life is nothing but a series of reinventions. Those who can continue to reinvent will thrive and those who can’t will fall behind. The reinvention begins on Saturday.

As you all go off to your Thanksgiving dinners, I want to ask all of you to think about these fighters. They won’t be, as Jason pointed out, be sitting down to a big meal because they have make to weight on the scale Friday. God knows Jolene hopes they all do! This is a rough assignment during a holiday like this.

Tickets starting at $50 and are still available through Ticketmaster and Madison Square Garden box office for Saturday’s event. Or you can watch live on HBO World Championship Boxing® starting at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

We have a lot of people here behind the scenes giving up their holiday. They’re working hard to put on an entertaining night of boxing for your Thanksgiving weekend. I want to particularly make a shout out to every member of my wonderful staff: Jolene, Nicole, Alexis, Lisa and Joe. I want to make a shout out to Ed Keenan, our trusty sidekick and to Gayle Falkenthal who is pinch-hitting admirably for Ellen. We all have her and her family in our thoughts and prayers. She’s going through a rough patch. Hopefully she’ll be back again too. I think it’s only appropriate as we’re all giving thanks, that we give these people a big round of applause, please. And to all of you because I know you’re all working today too and we’d rather not be. So thank you for coming.

###
Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Medoff Vodka and Leon.ru. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Gamboa vs. Sosa is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing and ZR Entertainment. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

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New York, NY: On Saturday night, Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) will look to regain the WBO Light Heavyweight World Title from The Theater at Madison Square Garden live on HBO World Championship Boxing against Vyacheslav “Lion Heart-Chingonskyy” Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs). The scouting report for this much-anticipated battle is below:

Category
Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev
Vyacheslav “Lion Heart” Shabranskyy
Age
34
30
Record
30-2-1 (26 KOs)
19-1-0 (16 KOs)
Strength
The Krusher has knockout power in both hands and can end a fight with any punch he throws. He has a sharp jab that has been effective in keeping his opponents at bay and has plenty of big-fight experience coming into this bout.
Shabranskyy is one of the division’s toughest fighters. He has an aggressive style with heavy hands and a granite chin. He applies steady pressure throughout the fight and does a superb job of breaking down his opposition.
Weakness
He tends to leave openings in his guard, which could be costly considering the power of his opponent.
His aggressive style can get sloppy at times, which has resulted in him hitting the canvas in prior bouts. He will need to fine-tune his defense to avoid a shot from one of the division’s biggest punchers.
Experience
Sergey has more professional bouts under his belt and has faced-off with the best in the sport. His previous 11 bouts have been world title fights.
Slava lacks the top-level opposition that Kovalev has faced; this will be the biggest fight of his career thus far.

Power
Kovalev is called the Krusher for a reason. His main strength throughout his career has been his power. He throws each punch with bad intentions and can finish the fight in an instant.
Shabranskyy is extremely heavy-handed. He has remarkable power in both hands and possesses a straight right hand that can end any fight if landed clean.
Speed
Sergey has average speed that picks up once he smells blood and goes for the finish.
Slava has average speed and really turns it up a notch when he senses that his opponent is in trouble.
Endurance
Sergey has proven in recent years that he can go a full twelve rounds, but we’ve also seen him lose steam in later rounds.
Shabranskyy’s endurance has yet to be tested. He has gone 10 rounds just once in his career, which resulted in a decision win over former ranked contender Yunieski Gonzalez.
Accuracy
He has a pin-point accurate jab and delivers rigorous shots to the body that have ended fights in the past.
Slava’s most accurate punch is his right hand. If timed correctly, it can be a game-changer in the fight.
Defense
Sergey’s best defense is his offense. His power has always been a game-changer in bouts. It forces opponents to rethink their game plan.
The Ukrainian relies on offense more than anything. He likes to attack his opponents and break their will from start to finish.
Chin
Although he was stopped in his previous bout under questionable circumstances, Kovalev has proven throughout his career that his chin is more than durable.
Vyacheslav was stopped in his lone career defeat, however, he has proven that his chin is durable. He has been knocked down in numerous fights and made it back to his feet to take the win.
Style
Sergey is an offense-minded fighter who likes to walk his opponents down until he smells blood and can go for the finish.
Shabranskyy is an aggressive, in-your-face fighter who wastes little time in trying to break his opponents down and finish the fight.
Crowd Support
The Krusher should have the advantage; he spent over three years as the champion at 175 lbs. and has a crowd-pleasing style of fighting.
The Ukrainian may not have the crowd support that his opponent will have, but his aggressive style will undoubtedly earn him some new fans by the end of the fight.
Intangibles
Since suffering his only two career defeats in his pro career, The Krusher wants to get right back in the ring and get back one of his titles. Kovalev has been through the gauntlet in the light heavyweight division – he has faced nothing but the best throughout his career. He does not plan to break that trend anytime soon.
There was no title on the line when Shabranskyy originally accepted this fight. The Ukrainian is willing to take any fight to climb the ladder in this stacked division. He will attempt to impose his will and fight fire with fire when facing an opponent whose style is almost identical to his own.
The Match-Up
1. Will Sergey be mentally prepared for this fight?
2. Will Shabranskyy be able to handle Sergey’s power?
3. Will Sergey get back to being the Krusher?
4. Will Shabranskyy be able to shine under the big lights?

According to Main Events’ matchmaker and 2015 NABF Matchmaker of the Year, Jolene Mizzone, “This is the type of fight every fight fan should want to see because both fighters can punch! After going through over 10 different potential opponents who turned down a fight with Kovalev, I give Shabranskyy credit for taking less than one day to accept the fight. Kudos to both guys for accepting this fight. Sergey, who is coming off two losses, was still ready to fight anyone. Shabranskyy accepted this opportunity before it was sanctioned for the vacant title, when no one else was willing to get in the ring with The Krusher.”

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Medoff Vodka and Leon.ru. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Gamboa vs. Sosa is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing and ZR Entertainment. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

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HBO Sports celebrates the holiday weekend with an action-packed tripleheader, including the return of light heavyweight powerhouse Sergey Kovalev, when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: SERGEY KOVALEV VS. VYACHESLAV SHABRANSKYY AND SULLIVAN BARRERA VS. FELIX VALERA AND YURIORKIS GAMBOA VS. JASON SOSA is seen SATURDAY, NOV. 25 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT) from The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The HBO Sports team will call all the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

The fights will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and affiliate portals.

The main event features the return of the feared Sergey Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) as he battles heavy-handed Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) for a vacant light heavyweight title in a scheduled 12-round bout. Following a light heavyweight title reign that spanned more than three years and featured eight successful defenses, polished Russian knockout artist Kovalev, 34, is eager to reclaim the belts he lost in 2016 to future Hall of Famer Andre Ward.

Standing in his way is Ukraine’s Shabranskyy, 30, who turned pro in 2012 after a long amateur career in his home country and has been knocking out top contenders on the way to his biggest fight to date. Both men have been active lately, this being Kovalev’s tenth fight since Jan. 2014 and Shabranksyy’s tenth fight since Jan. 2015. The bout marks Kovalev’s 11th appearance on HBO, while Shabranskyy is making his debut on the main channel after fighting on HBO Latino in 2015.

In the co-main event, one of the top light heavyweight contenders, Sullivan Barrera (20-1, 14 KOs) of Miami via Cuba, closes out his tremendous 2017 by taking on Felix Valera (15-1, 13 KOs) of the Dominican Republic in a ten-round fight. Barrera, 35, is fresh off the biggest win of his career, a unanimous decision victory over Joe Smith Jr. in July and hopes to set himself up for another title shot in 2018 by defeating Valera. Making his U.S. debut, the hard-punching Valera, 29, seeks an upset that would insert him into the light heavyweight championship conversation.

In the opening bout, former unified featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (27-2, 17 KOs) of Miami, Florida squares off against Camden, NJ native Jason Sosa (20-2-4, 15 KOs) in a scheduled ten-round super featherweight contest. Gamboa, 35, is an accomplished veteran with success at all levels, including a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics while representing Cuba and a dominating stretch as a world champion in the pro ranks. Sosa, 29, looks to bounce back after a difficult loss to junior lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and return to the championship ranks. Sosa is making his third HBO appearance, while the bout marks Gamboa’s tenth fight on HBO.

Immediately following the boxing action, HBO Sports presents a half-hour special spotlighting the career of all-time great Miguel Cotto, who is slated for his professional farewell against Sadam Ali on Saturday, Dec. 2 at Madison Square Garden in a fight to be seen on HBO.

Follow HBO boxing news at hbo.com/boxing, on Facebook at facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter at twitter.com/hboboxing.

All HBO boxing events are presented in HDTV. HBO viewers must have access to the HBO HDTV channel to watch HBO programming in high definition.

The executive producer of HBO Sports is Rick Bernstein; producer, Thomas Odelfelt; director, Johnathan Evans.

® WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc.

New York, NY: Before fans at the Theater at Madison Square Garden are treated to the long-awaited WBO Light Heavyweight World Championship bout between Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Vyacheslav “Lion Heart/Chingonskyy” Shabranskyy on Saturday, November 25, they will witness an exciting mix of top international and local prospects on the non-televised undercard.

Brooklyn native and local philanthropist, Frank “Notorious” Galarza (17-2-2, 11 KOs), will face Jaime Herrera of Chicago, Illinois in an eight-round super welterweight battle.

Galarza, 32, made his professional debut in 2010 and did not face defeat until 2015. After nearly a year off, he has signed with Main Events and is looking to prove he is still a force to be reckoned with in the division. When he is not boxing, Frank dedicates most of his free time to his charitable organization, Youth Fighting Forward, which offers boxing lessons, as well as mentoring and tutoring to underprivileged kids in Brooklyn and Connecticut. His fight with Herrera on Nov. 25 will allow him to fulfill his life-long dream of competing at Madison Square Garden.

Herrera, 28, is as tough as they come and is a fighter who is known to fully embrace the spoiler role. He owns a victory over the previously undefeated Javier Flores. He was also responsible for derailing the comeback train of former title contender Mike Jones when he scored a 7th-round stoppage in 2014. Herrera has been in the ring with and has held his own against some of the sport’s toughest fighters in Adrian Granados and ranked welterweight Egidijus Kavaliauskas.

Middleweights Leshawn “Lightning” Rodriguez (7-0, 6 KOs) and Alex Sandro Duarte (7-2, 5 KOs) are scheduled for six rounds of action.

Rodriguez, 24, of Shirley, New York had an outstanding amateur career, amassing a record of 160-15 and winning two NY Daily News Golden Gloves before making his professional debut in 2016. He sustained a broken hand in his October 2016 bout against Courtney McCleave, which left him sidelined for nearly a year. Since his return to the ring in September, he is 2-0 with two knockouts.

Duarte, 37 from Sao Paulo, Brazil, is an active fighter who will meet any challenge that is offered. He started his career with a record of 12-0-1 before suffering his first career defeat at the hands of the heavy-handed Bakhram Murtazaliev. This bout will be Duarte’s 7th of this year and his chance to get back into the win column.

In the first championship bout of the evening Bakhram Murtazaliev (10-0, 8 KOs) of Grozny, Russia will face Carlos “The Warrior” Galvan (16-5-1, 15 KOs) of Apartado, Colombia for the IBA Super Welterweight World Title.

Murtazaliev, 24, has quickly made a name for himself since coming to the United States in 2016. He has an 80% knockout-to-win (8 KOs in 10 wins) ratio and has stopped his last six opponents in a row. Bakhram, originally signed to Krusher Promotions, recently added Main Events to his team as well. This will be his second fight under both the Krusher Promotions’ and Main Events’ banners. In his first fight, he stopped Robson Assis in the first round as part of the Mohegan Sun’s Rising Stars Boxing series at Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino last month.

Carlos Galvan, 26, is also a knockout artist with a 93% knockout-to-win ratio (15 KOs in 16 wins). He made his professional debut back in 2011 and stopped his first four opponents. Galvan has also stopped his last four opponents as well. Despite five career losses, Galvan’s defeats have come at the hands of opposition with a combined record of 58-1; it is a list that includes the likes of currently-ranked contender Caleb Plant and previously-ranked contender Immanuwel Aleem.

Astana, Kazakhstan native Meiirim “The Sultan” Nursultanov (4-0, 3 KOs) will face Eric Moon (7-0, 6 KOs) of Atlanta, Georgia.

Meiirim Nursultanov, 24, started boxing at the age of 13 after watching his brother compete in the sport. He made his professional debut last year and has stopped each of his last three opponents. Nursultanov will look to top his most recent performance, which resulted in a TKO win after knocking his opponent, Ismael Bueno, out of the ring.

Eric Moon, 26, was born in Alexander City, Alabama. He was street fighting at age 14 and started boxing at 16. After he graduated from high school in 2008, he took some college courses at Alabama A&M but decided to pursue boxing instead. Moon had 52 amateur fights with only 6 losses. Three of Moon’s six KOs came in the first round and he has a 85% (six of seven) knockout-to-win ratio.

Former kickboxing sensation Enriko Gogokhia (6-0, 3 KOs) of Zugdidi, Georgia will face Jose Antonio Abreu (13-2 8 KOs) of La Romana, Dominican Republic in a six-round welterweight match-up. As a professional kickboxer, Gogokhia, 26, was 42-7, 21 KOs and won the WKF World Title, the W5 Intercontinental Championship and the Tatneft Arena World Cup. He made his professional boxing debut in 2016 after six years as a professional kickboxer.

Abreu, 29, made his professional debut in 2012 and won his first 12 bouts with seven of those wins coming back way of knockout. After suffering his first career loss in 2016, Abreu redeemed himself in his next fight by scoring a second round TKO over Euri Gonzalez. After suffering his second career defeat in his most recent bout, Jose will once again be looking for redemption when facing the undefeated Enriko Gogokhia.

In the first bout of the evening, two-time NY Daily News Golden Gloves Champion Ismael Villarreal from the Bronx, New York will make his professional debut against Race Sawyer of Salt Lake City, Utah. Villarreal, 20, is the son of former super lightweight fighter Otilio Villarreal, who is best known for his match-ups against names like Zab Judah, Hector Camacho and Kermit Cintron. Ismael first began training with his father at the age of eight.

Sawyer, 33, is a professional boxer who also competes in mixed martial arts. He has spent his entire boxing and mixed martial arts career competing in his home state of Utah. This will be his first trip to New York, where he is ready to embrace the chorus of boos that he may face when battling Ismael Villarreal in his own backyard.

According to Main Events’ matchmaker and 2015 NABF Matchmaker of the Year, Jolene Mizzone, “These are the kind of undercards I love to make. This is a great mix of the local up-and-comers, hot prospects from Eastern Europe with the big amateur backgrounds and veterans looking to prove the losses on their records were just a minor setback. Every match that was made was made for a reason and these guys each have a story to tell. There are punchers, boxers and veterans with more experience than their opposition. Every fighter on this undercard has something to prove and this is the best platform for them to do it. The best thing about this undercard is, unlike most recent undercards, these bouts were made well in advance. Therefore, all the fighters had ample time to train. It should be an exciting night!”

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Gamboa vs. Sosa is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing and ZR Entertainment. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 15, 2017) WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight Champion
Vyacheslav “Lion Heart Chingonskyy” Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) hosted a Los Angeles media workout at Westside Boxing Club ahead of his 12-round fight against former unified Light Heavyweight Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) for the vacant WBO World Light Heavyweight championship. The fight will take place on Saturday, Nov. 25 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing® beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Here’s what Shabranskyy had to say regarding his upcoming fight:

VYACHESLAV “LION HEART CHINGONSKYY” SHABRANSKYY, WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight Champion:

“My training camp was great. I did all the necessary rounds of training for this fight. Now we’re just working on the speed during these last two weeks.”

“Dmitry Bivol [WBA Light Heavyweight Champion] and David Benavidez [WBC Super Middleweight Champion] have helped me a lot with sparring. They come to the gym and they give me real work. We just train real hard and help each other. It’s great being able to spar and train with these champions.”

“This is a very big event. Fighting for a world title–it’s all or nothing. Right now, I’m not thinking about [Kovalev]. I’m not thinking about what he has done or what he is doing. I’ll see him on Nov. 25, and then after the fight, I’ll tell you about him.”

“I was so excited when I found out this bout would be for a world title. I had accepted the fight before knowing it would be for a world title. We got the call from his side and we took the fight. But then the WBO called and we were very excited. I’m very hungry and prepared to win.”

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO World Light Heavyweight championship promoted by Main Events andKrusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Gamboa vs. Sosa is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing and ZR Entertainment. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Tickets for Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy range from $50 to $350 and are available online at Ticketmaster.com, at the MSG box office or Main Events’ office by calling (973) 200-7050 or emailing boxing@mainevents.com. Use the code LATINOSUNIDOS when purchasing your tickets to donate a portion of the proceeds to hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico and the rebuilding efforts in Mexico following the earthquake in Mexico City. The donations will go to the Hispanic Federation’s Unidos fund and to Habitat for Humanity Mexico.

Photos and video of Sergey Kovalev and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy are available for download here:http://bit.ly/KovalevShabranskyy. Credit must be given to David Spagnolo/Main Events for all Kovalev assets, and credit must be given to Golden Boy Promotions for all Shabranskyy assets.

CONTACTS:
Ellen Haley, Main Events: (973) 903-6715, ehaley@mainevents.com
Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, FVG/Main Events: (619) 997-2495, gfalkenthal@gmail.com
Ramiro Gonzalez/Gabriel Rivas, Golden Boy Promotions: (213) 489-5631
Stefan Friedman/Kristen Rockwell Caloca, Mercury: (424) 202-1671
Larry Torres, MSG Sports Properties: (212) 631-5178,larry.torres@msg.com
Patrick Byrne, HBO: (212) 512-1361 / patrick.byrne@hbo.com
Ed Keenan, EMC, (609) 432-7859, keenan@emcevents.com

New York, NY: The International Boxing Association announced Friday that it will sanction the upcoming light heavyweight battle between former unified world champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) and Vyacheslav “Lion Heart-Chingonskyy” Shabranksyy (19-1, 16 KOs) for the IBA Light Heavyweight World Title. This in in addition to the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title which will also be on the line in this bout.

The fight will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, November 25, is presented by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing® beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT and. Tickets range from $50 to $350 and available online at Ticketmaster.com, at the MSG box office or Main Events’ office by calling (973) 200-7050 or emailing boxing@mainevents.com.

The IBA also announced that in addition to the Kovalev-Shabranskyy bout, the 10-round non-televised undercard bout between Bakhram Murtazaliev (10-0, 8 KOs) and Carlos Galvan (16-5-1, 15 KOs) will be for the IBA Super Welterweight World Title. This bout is presented by Main Events and Krusher Promotions.

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Gamboa vs. Sosa is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing and ZR Entertainment. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Kathy Duva, CEO of Main Events: Welcome everyone to the Kovalev-Shabranskyy International Media Conference Call. Thank you to all the media who have dialed in to this call today to discuss the upcoming fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight Title. This tasty Thanksgiving weekend boxing event is sure to thrill fans and will air on HBO World Championship Boxing® live from The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Sat., Nov. 25 at 10:00 PM Eastern and Pacific Time. The fight is presented by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Tickets range from $50 to $350 and are available online at ticketmaster.com, the Madison Square Garden box office or Main Events’ Office by calling 973-200-7050 or emailing boxing@mainevents.com.

Sergey Kovalev, former unified light heavyweight world champion: Yes, I’m really good. My training camp is going really good, like always, and I’m happy to work right now with my new coach Arbor Tursunpulatov. He’s doing a great job and we understand each other because we speak and understand one language. We understand each other and I feel comfortable.

Question: Sergey, can you describe what it was like for you to put the losses to Andre Ward behind you? This is like a new beginning for your career. Can you talk about that?

SK: All life is like a lesson for me. After my last three fights, some felt that I should get more physically into my work life with my boxing again. But right now, I feel all bad things are gone from my mind. Right now I concentrate, and I focus for the future of my boxing career. I’m ready to be again a world champion and collect my belts if somebody will be ready to unify the title.

Question: Sergey, when this fight was made with Shabranskyy you did not know it was going to be for the title. Andre Ward hadn’t retired, I don’t believe, when this fight was put together and you were going to go in and fight him to get back in action, score a win and get back on track. Can you tell me what it was like for you, as far as how excited you were that when you found out that it was going to be for one of the titles that Andre vacated when he retired? That you’d have a chance to regain one of your belts in your first fight coming off of a defeat?

SK: My next fight without the belt was going to be discouraging, because I must come back.(It) should be very exciting. I’m really excited and ready to get my belts back. It would be really interesting and really exciting, and I would fight anybody.

I was ready to fight Sullivan Barrera, but he didn’t approve the fight and we got Vyacheslav Shabranskyy. And, after this, Andre Ward vacated the title; it’s additional motivation. It’s like the most important (in) how my future boxing career is going to be. I’m really happy that this fight will be for the title and for the WBO, because this was the first title that I had already., But now this is like a new chapter in my boxing career. I am recharged. I am much stronger than last three fights and you will see November 25 in New York.

Question: Kathy, you’ve promoted a lot of fighters over the years. I just wanted your philosophy about what to do when you have a top-notch fighter, like Sergey Kovalev, and they have the situation where they lost a fight, lost maybe a second fight and your philosophy on how you go about bringing them back to prominence once again? What is your thought process when you meet with the fighter’s manager to put him back in a position to get him back on top?

KD: The first fight, I will say for the rest of my life, he didn’t lose. The second one, he was fighting the referee and the fighter, but he lost to the number one fighter in the world. That’s not coming back. You don’t fall too far when you’re that close with a guy who is that good. Ward has a style that is just very, very hard to beat, especially when he’s getting help.

My feeling about this is that Sergey is must-see TV. Sergey is still one of the most compelling, exciting fighters in the world. Having lost a debatable decision or a debatable stoppage shouldn’t really derail somebody’s career all that much. And as things turned out, Sergey is in a position right now to, not only be right back on top, but to be right back on top of one of the most exciting and perhaps the deepest division in boxing.

In my mind, you know, you hit the reset button. That’s what we did here. Sergey started out from absolutely nothing and in a few short years made it all the way to the top of the sport. I don’t know why everybody thinks he can’t do it again. He doesn’t have far to climb this time and it’s very nice the way the thing is starting to play itself out. You have exciting young fighters winning world titles in the division now. He’s going literally back to where we began with the WBO. He wins that belt first and I’ve already been hearing that some of the other champions want to fight him.

We’ve got some terrific fights to look forward to. I think, let’s put it behind us and move on. These are going to be exciting fights. This is an exciting division. I commend Sergey for reaching for that brass ring and fighting someone he really didn’t have to fight to try to grab that mantle of greatness. I think he got it, in essence, because he did it.

In this day and age, there are very few fighters who are going to go win a world title, put their titles on the line against absolutely everyone, one right after another and come right back and start doing it again. To me, this is a little interruption and we’re just moving forward now.

Question: Do you think all this leads, Kathy, to Sergey fighting the eventual winner of Bivol and Barrera?

KD: Of course. If he wants to win his belt back, he’s going to have to do that. If the Bivol-Barrera fight gets done. We’ve had talks. It is certainly makeable, but it is by no means a foregone conclusion at this point.

Question: Sergey, from a tactical standpoint, there were some things that were mentioned during the Ward fight, and I know you’re saying that you want to move on and you guys have hit the reset button. I agree, you don’t fall far off of the map or the ladder when you take a loss to another world champion. But just from a tactical standpoint, what are some of the things that you took away from the two fights with Ward that you may or may not have seen as things that you could work on moving forward now that you’ve hit the reset button?

SK: The most important thing in my boxing career that I should do during all my time here in America till I finish my boxing career: when I’m doing boxing, I should do boxing. Not another business or a lot of flights to come back and forth to Russia to spend free time. Because when I’m in Russia, I don’t have the time like for locals and doing the boxing. Just a lot of meetings, a lot of businesses, a lot of wrong things. I mean.not sport at all. But right now, I’m here in America, and started a new chapter in my boxing career.

Question: You think it was more or less you were having distractions from outside of the ring being in Russia with family and other businesses. Here in America you’re able to focus 110% on boxing. But then, once you are 110% zoned in here in America, with your training, what are some of the things that you’re doing inside of the gym? Or are you just getting back to the basics and working hard and going back to the things that got you all the way to where you currently are? Is there anything different outside of the training?

SK: By being in the U.S., I am a more disciplined fighter. All the traveling that I did, changing the time zones, doing the non-boxing business, it was hard for me to get back into the tip-top condition before my fight. When I do too much traveling and when in other businesses, I’m not 100% focused. By staying in the U.S., I would have been disciplined all the time. That’s what’s going to help me to have that reset button and to get to my next title fight.

Question: Kathy, do you see many big challenges for Sergey Kovalev at 175?

KD: Oh yes. My Lord, they’re just lining up. You saw Dimitry Bivol the other night, certainly, announce his rival very emphatically. You’ve got Artur Beterbiev, there’s that grudge match that hasn’t happened yet that certainly is still on the horizon between Sergey and Beterbiev. Particularly if Beterbiev is successful in his title fight that’s coming up shortly. You’ve got Sullivan Barrera who’s going to be on this card. He’s got Felix Valera who’s going to be fighting him in, we think, maybe the sleeper fight of the night. Of course, Gvozdyk, who is also managed by Egis Klimas is another one. You’ve got Eleider Alvarez who I’m hearing isn’t getting a title fight. So, who knows? Maybe he’ll arrive and, you never know, if that WBC titleholder ever grows a pair, we may see him some day. There are so many good fights in this division.

If you think about it, Dimitry Bivol is in his 20s. He is the only one, actually, who is in his 20s. The rest of these guys are in their 30s. There’s going to be a whole crop of new fighters coming up right behind them. I do mean it when I say I think this is the deepest division in boxing. I think it is.

Question: Sergey, with these names: Alvarez, Stevenson, Bivol, all the guys, do you feel that you are the main guy? You are the strongest guy in 175?

SK: Take your time. Let’s just see what will happen after next year. Right now I have a focus on my next fight and I do not say that I’m the best. But I want to be the best. And I already have proved a lot of things to myself and to lot of people, to the boxing fans, that I can be the best. But the three last fights, it was something is wrong with me. Next fight and next year I will show everything, who I am. But take your time. I’m working on it.

KD: That will be so much fun finding out.

Question: Sergey, I was just wondering if your upcoming opponent, if his style is going to offer you any problems, his movement and his defensive boxing?

SK: If I will be in the best shape and right now, everything is going very good with my training camp and I’m feeling very good and I hope that everything will be much better than the last fight, you know.. If I will be in the best shape, not any problem against Shabranskyy or anybody.

Question: Our Commander in Chief, Donald Trump, we are trying to get him to come to Bellator and he’s expressed some interest in fight sports. Will he have to buy a ticket or will there be a VIP pass if he wish to attend?

KD: [laughing] I’ll probably make him buy a ticket because the last time I made a deal with him, he didn’t pay us the whole amount of money he owed us. So he’s going to have to buy a lot of tickets before we make up that 2.6 mil.

Question: Do you think Sergey’s opponent can offer him any problems or present any challenges?

KD: Of course. Every time a fighter like Sergey has to take the next step in his journey, learn to deal with the loss, move on from it, the next opponent is obviously going to present a problem. Shabranskyy is a great big puncher and this is boxing, anything can happen. I know Sergey is taking this very seriously and putting 100% into it. Because you’ve got to do that every time when you’re in there with a world-class fighter, which is what he’s going be in with on November 25th.

KD: I would like to mention our undercard fight with Sullivan Barrera and Felix Valera. I think Eric can talk a little bit about the other undercard fight, which is terrific. It’s always a pleasure to deal with our friends at Golden Boy. It really does make this job a lot more fun when you actually genuinely like the people you’re working with. Welcome, Eric. Good to have you.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions: Thank you, Kathy. The feeling is mutual over here at Golden Boy. Good morning to everybody as it is still morning on the West Coast. Happy to be on this call and obviously very happy for this fight for Vyacheslav Shabranskyy. We call him Slava for short. This is going to be a great card on November 25th. As Kathy mentioned, we have one of our fighters in the co-feature and that’s Yuriorkis Gamboa, who is going to be making a comeback fight on HBO. He’s got a tough fight against Jason Sosa and we’re looking forward to that. But we’re very happy for Slava. He’s finally getting an opportunity to fight for the world title. And obviously, he’s fighting the best light heavyweight out there in Sergey Kovalev. He has demonstrated to all of us at Golden Boy that he’s prepared for this fight. This is going to be a tough challenge, but he’s up for it.

Let me give you a little background on Slava. He made his professional debut back in 2012. He had 17 straight victories, 14 KOs. The only blemish on his record was a hard-fought fight against Sullivan Barrera, but he’s bounced back since and he’s had a couple of great wins.

He’s the current WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight Champion. This is his chance at stardom. If he can beat a guy like Sergey Kovalev, he’s going to be considered probably one of the top light heavyweights in the world.

Vyacheslav Shabranskyy: Training camp is doing good. I’m so happy for our preparation. Thank you very much, yeah. Everything is great.

Question: Slava, this is obviously such a big opportunity for you. Do you think that Sergey’s style of always coming forward and your style of classic boxing, does his style play perfectly into yours?

VS: I think we have a different style. It will be a more interesting fight because my style is a background Ukrainian amateur, plus Mexican here. So, I know what Kovalev’s style is like. I know his Russian background is strong and now he’s here. I think it will be interesting fight there for everybody.

Question: Are you afraid of his power at all?

VS: No, I’m not scared of nobody. Hey, bro, I have a wife and two kids. I’m scared of nobody. [Laughs]

Question: I asked Sergey if he did anything differently in this training camp since the Andre Ward losses as far as from a tactical standpoint. It seemed like he was having some trouble with the inside fighting. I know you said you have your amateur background and you also mentioned you like to apply Mexican style. Is that something that we can look forward to as far as your game plan? Can we look forward to the two of you banging on the inside, because it seemed as though there still might be some questions out there for Sergey as far as taking it to the body and then also the inside fighting.

VS: You never know how a fight is coming, but I believe it’ll be like good fight. I’ll bring everything what I know from Ukraine here but don’t want to give away too much, yeah.

Question: Eric, the other fight that you had mentioned, the Gamboa-Sosa fight, can you tell us a little bit about that? Because I know Gamboa, was announced yesterday as the replacement. Can you just talk a little bit about that fight?

EG: Robinson Castellanos was the original opponent that was going to fight Jason Sosa and he injured himself. He injured his back. This actually happened last week. He injured his back and the doctor gave him a few days off. He came back to training and he still had a lot of discomfort. And it looks now like he might have some surgery on his knee that was causing the pain. It trickled up from the knee to his back. He’s going to be out for a while, Robinson Castellanos. Gamboa came back after losing to Castellanos. He came back and he had a win and he was available. Gamboa is a former three-time world champion. He’s still very tough and he was able to come right in and replace Castellanos for the fight. I think it’s going to be a very good fight.

Question: Vyacheslav, do you feel that you are coming in a better moment than Sergey Kovalev after two victories?

VS: Everything will be in the ring, so, we will see our situation in the ring. Both guys are coming into this ring bringing everything that they have on the line and, just because I have two consecutive wins after unfortunate loss, doesn’t mean anything. So, both guys are probably in the same position as of now.

Question: Eric, do you see this division, 175, as one of the most interesting in boxing right now, and what do you think, like Kathy said, about Barrera, Stevenson, Bivol, Kovalev, these guys. How do you see the 175 category?

EG: No, it is. It’s one of the best divisions in boxing, obviously, when you have one of the top pound for pound fighters, Andre Ward, fighting in that division. He just recently retired, but for a long time it’s one of the best divisions. When you have a star like Sergey, who pretty much put the division on the map. A few years back, some of the top fighters were fighting there. Bernard Hopkins obviously spent the last part of his career fighting at light heavyweight. And ever since then it’s been very exciting. There’s many good fighters in that division, and you’ve got to give it to Kovalev. He’s probably the top guy there now with the retirement. It’s a very hot division and there’s many good a match as they can take place in this division and November 25th is one of the matches.

Question: Vyacheslav, I was just wondering what you thought of the Kovalev-Ward fight, the second fight in particular. Do you see vulnerabilities in Kovalev that maybe you hadn’t seen before?

VS: Ward did his homework, A+. I am prepared to see Kovalev in a different light for this fight because I am 100% sure that I learned a great lesson from what happened to him.

Question: What lessons did he learn from that fight?

VS: Ward made necessary adjustments. I am going to do my homework for this one. I am sure I am prepared for anything.

Question: Does Slava feel that Kovalev is maybe more vulnerable now than he was before, now that he’s been stopped in a fight and has lost? A lot of people thought he won the first fight, but now that he’s lost two fights in a row?

VS: He’s actually much more dangerous after a loss, because he has everything to look forward to in this fight.

Question: How does Slava view this opportunity for himself, being that he was stopped by Barrera in the big fight last December? How does he view this fight for himself in terms of making himself a world champion and thrusting himself into huge fights in the light heavyweight division?

VS: Up to this point every single fight, I treat it like a championship fight. And for this fight, I had no idea the belt would be on the line. And now that the belt is on the line, I am blessed to have this opportunity.

Question: Eric, I was just wondering if you could comment on the fight and what you think of Kovalev at this stage as opposed to before he fought Andre Ward twice and what are Shabranskyy’s chances of winning this fight?

EG: I can make the argument that Kovalev won the first fight with Andre Ward. That was a very, very close fight. I felt he won that fight. He made some technical errors in the second fight. I think he’s still the top guy. He’s still the top guy, especially now that Andre Ward retired. It’s going to be a very tough fight, but the key is Shabranskyy has been waiting for this fight his whole life. This is the opportunity. This is what he’s wanted ever since he signed with Golden Boy. He wanted the opportunity to fight one of the top guys, to fight for the title. Is he going to rise to the occasion? That’s the question. That’s the question. He’s doing everything right in camp. He’s looking great. Talking to his trainer he’s doing everything that he’s supposed to. He’s motivated. We’re going to have to wait and see November 25th.

Question: Eric, what do you think that he learned from the Barrera fight? Obviously, he had knocked Barrera down in the fight and then got knocked out himself. What do you think he learned from that and how has that made him a different fighter?

EG: To work a little bit more on his defense and you can’t just walk into a fighter. You got to come behind a jab and work on his head movement a little bit more. Those are some of the things that he’s been working on in the gym and I think that those are going to be beneficial. When you’re fighting a guy like Kovalev, he probably has one of the best jabs in boxing. He’s so long and he uses it so well. Slava has his work cut out for him. He’s going to have to get past that jab so he can be able to get on the inside and do some work.

Question: Eric, you mentioned the Gamboa fight. Can you comment on the opportunity that Yuriorkis is getting here coming off the tough loss and everything? What this chance means for him in his career and maybe being able to salvage his career here?

EG: This is probably like his last chance. This is do-or-die for him. And that’s the way he’s taking it. This is do-or-die. He’s still very exciting. He’s one of the most exciting fighters in boxing. He can bang. He can punch. He can box. He can move. He might not have the same hand speed he did when he was a little younger, when he first came on the scene, but he’s going to fight tooth and nail in this fight. This is going to be a great fight because his back is against the wall. And in order to get more paydays or be considered in title fights, he’s going to have to win this fight. Jason Sosa in many ways he’s in the same position as him. They make for great fights when you have two guys that are fighting for their future, and they want to stay at this elite level. I’m looking forward to a great fight.

EG: I just want to thank everybody that was on the call. Thank you very much, Kathy. I am looking forward to this great event, November 25th.

VS: Thank you guys, thank you everybody. I’m so excited for this fight here. See you on November 25th.

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Gamboa vs. Sosa is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing and ZR Entertainment. The event will take place on Nov. 25 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Reminder to news media: The deadline to apply for Fight Week credentials is Friday, November 17. Fill out the credential application at http://www.emcevents.com/kovalevshabranskyy.html

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LOS ANGELES (Nov. 6, 2017) Former unified featherweight champion Yuriorkis “El Ciclon de Guantanamo” Gamboa (27-2, 17 KOs) will step in to fight Jason “El Canito” Sosa (20-2-4, 15 KOs) in a 10-round super featherweight fight at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in the televised opener to Kovalev vs. Shabrankskyy. The event takes place Saturday, Nov. 25 and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Gamboa, a 35-year-old native of Guantanamo, Cuba, is an Olympic Gold Medalist who shot to the top of the Featherweight rankings to win two world titles, defeating the likes of Orlando “Siri” Salido and Daniel Ponce De Leon before officially moving up to 130 pounds. Gamboa has also faced stiff competition as a super featherweight, with wins against Darleys Perez and Rene “El Gemelo” Alvarado under his belt. Gamboa is replacing Robinson “Robin Hood” Castellanos, who pulled out of this fight due to an injury.

“I’m excited for this great opportunity to fight Sosa on the undercard of Kovalev-Shabranakssy,” said Gamboa. “A win over Sosa on HBO could push me back into title contention. I’m a fighter with many aspects and dimensions, and that’s what I’ll bring in my fight against Sosa. For my my last fight, I wasn’t prepared well. This time I will be very much prepared, so I can walk away with my hand raised.”

“I’m excited for Gamboa,” said Zeferino Ramirez of ZR Entertainment. “This is the fight we wanted. And I expect big things in 2018. He’ll be ready for any 130-pound champion if he is successful on November 25.”

The 29-year-old Sosa, of Camden, NJ, is the former WBA World Super Featherweight Champion. He earned his title by handing Javier “El Abejon” Fortuna his first loss as a pro with an 11th-round knockout in Beijing, China in June 2016. Sosa successfully defended his title with a 12-round decision win over Stephen Smith in Monte Carlo in November 2016 before returning several months later in a tough fight against Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko in April 2017. Sosa is also known for fighting to an impressive majority draw against former WBA Super World Featherweight Champion Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters and for stopping former world title challenger Jerry “The Corpus Christi Kid” Belmontes in only one round.

“People think we have an easier opponent in Gamboa since Castellanos beat him, but we’re not buying into that,” said Sosa. “Maybe Gamboa didn’t take Castellanos seriously. We expect to see the very best Gamboa on Nov. 25. Having said that, this is not about who we are fighting; this is about why. We are fighting to make Puerto Rico proud after what all the people who live there have been through recently.”

“This should be a solid fight between two guys, the same size, who like to hurt people,” said Russell Peltz, Hall of Fame Promoter of Peltz Boxing Promotions.”It’s a better matchup, style-wise, than the one between Jason [Sosa] and Robinson Castellanos.”
Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Gamboa vs. Sosa is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing and ZR Entertainment. The event will take place on Nov. 25 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Reminder to news media: The deadline to apply for Fight Week credentials is Friday, November 17. Fill out the credential application at http://www.emcevents.com/kovalevshabranskyy.html

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Miami, Florida: The World Boxing Organization voted today at their annual convention to sanction the upcoming battle at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, November 25 between former unified light heavyweight world champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) and Vyacheslav “Lion Heart” Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title.

The fight will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing® beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT and is presented by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Tickets range from $50 to $350 and available online at Ticketmaster.com, at the MSG box office or Main Events’ office by calling (973) 200-7050 or emailing boxing@mainevents.com.

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO Light Heavyweight World Title promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Sosa vs. Castellanos is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

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New York, NY: The upcoming battle between former unified light heavyweight world champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Vyacheslav “Lion Heart” Shabranskyy already has fans buzzing. Now this much-anticipated event on Saturday, November 25 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden will also include another exciting bout in the light heavyweight division between Cuban Sullivan Barrera (20-1, 14 KOs) and former WBA Interim Light Heavyweight Champion Felix “Mangu” Valera (15-1, 13 KOs) of the Dominican Republic. The bout will serve as the televised co-feature of HBO World Championship Boxing telecast which begins at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. This bout is presented by Main Events in association with Shuan Boxing Promotions, LLC.

Sullivan Barrera, 35, is ranked number one at light heavyweight by the WBA and, if he can defeat Valera, will be first in line for Dmitry Bivol’s WBA Light Heavyweight Championship belt as the mandatory challenger. A former member of the Cuban National Team who defected from Cuba in 2009, Barrera made his professional debut in 2009 in his adopted hometown of Miami, Florida. He quickly made a name for himself in the light heavyweight division winning his first 17 bouts, with 12 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

Barrera’s only career loss was last year against the recently retired former two-time super middleweight and unified light heavyweight world champion Andre “S.O.G.” Ward. Despite the unanimous decision loss to Ward, Sullivan stood toe-to-toe with the former pound-for-pound king for 12 full rounds. In his most recent fight, Barrera came back from a first-round knockdown to unanimously defeat Joe Smith Jr. and claim the WBC International Light Heavyweight Title.
When asked about this match-up, Barrera responded, “I am happy to be back in action, happy to be fighting in New York where boxing is big. Felix Valera is a tricky and tough fighter. He is just another obstacle in my way towards fighting for a world title.”

Valera, 29, from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic is a knockout artist with 13 KOs in only 15 professional wins. He made his professional debut back in 2012 and won his first 13 contests with 12 of those wins coming by way of the stoppage. Last year, he travelled to Russian and upset Stanislav Kashtanov to secure the WBA Interim Light Heavyweight Title. In his next fight, also in Russia, he suffered his only career loss to the reigning WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Dmitry Bivol in Bivol’s home country. Since the Bivol bout, Valera is 2-0 with 1 KO. This will be his first professional bout on US soil.

“I appreciate the opportunity offered to me by my promotional company, Shuan Boxing Promotion, and Main Events,” said Valera. “But I am warning Barrera right now that I am not going to New York for a vacation! I am going to score that upset and get the win. After my win against Barrera, I am then going to call out Sergey Kovalev because I want to fight the best fighters in my weight class. I am going to put my country, the Dominican Republic, back on the map and make them proud!”

Main Events CEO Kathy Duva said, “The light heavyweight division is wide open right now! Within a few short months, we’ll probably have four champions in the division. Sullivan Barrera and Felix Valera have both worked very hard over the last couple years to stay in the mix while taking on really tough fights. That experience will be an advantage for the winner of this fight, who will almost certainly fight for a world title next. More importantly for the fans, this is a great match up that will deliver in the ring on November 25 at Madison Square Garden.”

Valera’s promoter and CEO of Shuan Boxing Promotions, Bélgica Peña, added, “We have been waiting for an opportunity of this magnitude in the United States for a long time and we want to thank Felipe Gomez from El Matador Management, who has been the person helping us find a fight like this and he is the one who made this connection between us and Main Events. We know that Valera is not going to disappoint anyone with this fight. My fighter is a boxer with a lot of amateur experience and, with only 12 professional fights, he gained a world title in Russia. We know that Barrera is a great fighter, but he is in for major surprise come November. In all, the fans will be the true winner with this fight because Valera is coming to put on a spectacular show!”

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Barrera vs. Valera is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events in Association with Shuan Boxing Promotions. Sosa vs. Castellanos is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Peltz Boxing. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

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NEW YORK CITY (Oct. 19, 2017) Two of the most experienced fighters in the stacked 130-pound division will continue the heated Puerto Rico vs. Mexico rivalry when Jason “El Canito” Sosa (20-2-4, 14 KOs) takes on Robinson “Robin Hood” Castellanos (24-13, 14 KOs) in a 10-round super featherweight fight at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on the televised undercard for Kovalev vs. Shabrankskyy. The event takes place Saturday, Nov. 25 and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Although the competition between Puerto Rico and Mexico runs deep in the ring, Latinos and Hispanics come together and support each other in times of need. In light of the natural disasters affecting Mexico and the Caribbean, a portion of the proceeds of the ticket sales form this event will be donated to relief efforts for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the earthquake in Mexico City when ticket buyers use the code LATINOSUNIDOS to purchase their tickets through Ticketmaster.

“With the terrible natural disasters that have impacted Puerto Rico and Mexico recently, it was incredibly important to us that we find opportunities in boxing to give back to those affected,” said Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “Though Puerto Rico and Mexico are rivals when it comes to boxing we stand together united to help these communities recover and rebuild their lives.”

The 29-year-old Sosa, of Camden, NJ and of Puerto Rican descent, is the former WBA World Super Featherweight Champion. He earned his title by handing Javier “El Abejon” Fortuna his first loss as a pro with an 11th-round knockout in Beijing, China in June 2016. Sosa successfully defended his title with a 12-round decision win over Stephen Smith in Monte Carlo in November 2016 before returning several months later in a tough fight against Vasyl “Hi-Tech” Lomachenko in April 2017. Sosa is also known for fighting to an impressive majority draw against former WBA Super World Featherweight Champion Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters and for stopping former world title challenger Jerry “The Corpus Christi Kid” Belmontes in only one round. Sosa’s aggressive style should produce fireworks against Castellanos.

“Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico,” said Sosa. “I have been living there for the last few months and I opened a business there. Now to see the destruction and devastation that my people are going through, it breaks my heart. It was very difficult for me to leave and begin my training camp back in New Jersey to get ready for the fight against Castellanos. This fight is important for many reasons. It is the beginning of the road to becoming champion again and it is my way of giving Puerto Rico a reason to smile and be proud. They are my biggest supporters and that little island shows me so much love. I can’t do much but I can show them that this win is for them. I want to thank Castellanos and HBO for this opportunity.”

Castellanos is a battle-tested warrior who is coming off a spectacular performance against current WBA Super World Super Featherweight Champion Jezreel “El Invisible” Corrales in July of this year. The 35-year-old native of Guanajuato, Mexico also handed super bantamweight contender and world title challenger Ronny Rios his first career loss, stopping him by TKO in October of 2014. Before challenging for a world title, Castellanos stopped Cuban former unified WBA and IBF Featherweight Champion Yuriorkis “El Ciclon de Guantánamo” Gamboa on the May 5 edition of Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN. After having been so close to winning a world title in his last outing, Castellanos will look to make sure that he gets another crack at the top of the division with a victory on Nov. 25.

“What has happened in Mexico and Puerto [Rico] has been devastating,” said Castellanos. But it has also reminded us that we are strong and united. The crisis won’t be resolved from one day to another, but however long it takes we will lift ourselves up. I know little about Jason [Sosa], but I know that he was a world champion. He has already accomplished a dream that I am still looking to accomplish. I know that I’ll need a victory to fight for a world title again. Both of us will have to leave everything in the ring, and I hope that the people in New York really enjoy our fight.”

Tickets are currently on sale and are available at ticketmaster.com and the Madison Square Garden Box Office. Use the code LATINOSUNIDOS when purchasing your tickets to donate a portion of the proceeds to hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico and the rebuilding efforts in Mexico following the earthquake in Mexico City. The donations will go to the Hispanic Federation’s Unidos fund and to Habitat for Humanity Mexico.

To make a direct donation for hurricane relief, please visit the Hispanic Federation’s website: https://hispanicfederation.org/unidos/. To make a direct donation for earthquake relief in Mexico, please visit the website of Habitat for Humanity and direct your donation to “2017 Mexico Earthquake Response”: https://www.habitat.org/donate/?link=878.

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy is a 10-round light heavyweight fight promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions. Sosa vs. Castellanos is a 10-round super featherweight fight promoted by Peltz Boxing and Golden Boy Promotions. The event will take place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

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Kathy Duva, CEO – Main Events: All right, everybody, welcome. We are here today to officially kick off the promotion for a fight that’s going to take place at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, November 25. That’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev is going to fight Vyacheslav Shabranskyy in a fight that is going to be a little departure for what Sergey’s gone through lately. It’s going to be a fight where both guys stand in the ring and throw punches at each other.

I think it’s going to be entertaining and fun for all. We’re thrilled to be bringing Sergey to the Mecca of Boxing for the very first time. It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a while and I want to thank Joel Fischer, Sal Federico and, of course, Larry [Torres] of Madison Square Garden, who is here with us today.

It is the number one destination for boxing in the country as far as I’m concerned and we’re really looking forward to putting on a tremendous show. Sergey, of course, the former unified light heavyweight world champion, with a 30-2-1 record, with 26 knockouts; he’s anxious to get back to his “krushing” ways. It’s been over two years since he’s fought on regular HBO in the United States. It is time to get back on track and based on what we’ve heard this morning, apparently, he’s the man in the light heavyweight division again! Sergey said he was going to retire Ward; I guess he did.

He’s going to be fighting Vyacheslav “Lion Heart” Shabranskyy, 19-1, with 16 knockouts and he is the current WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight Champion. This bout is scheduled to be a 10-round light heavyweight matchup and it will be in the Theater live on HBO Boxing After Dark® beginning at 10:00 PM, Eastern and Pacific.

At this moment, tickets have already gone on sale. Our presale was very good and you can still get them at ticketmaster.com and the MSG box office. They start at $50 and range up to $350 for ringside, so this is a very nicely priced event. I think it’s going to be terrific. We’re going to have lots of other fighters on the undercard, you’ll hear more about them in the coming weeks, but we’ve got a lot of guys who will be from New York who are just starting out with Main Events, some others who’ve been with us for a while. Every fight, as a usual, Jolene puts together the best undercards in boxing, as far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure she won’t let us down because she never does.

It is my pleasure to introduce my friend Ray Stallone, HBO Vice President of Media Relations.

Ray Stallone: Thank you. Not too many comments but I just want to obviously say thank you to our host here today, the Renaissance. This is a really, really nice venue. This is so bright, so airy, so classy, it is just lovely. The next time someone asks for recommendation where we should go in New York, this would certainly be considered.

The second thing is there’s always a formula in boxing where you feel like something special could happen. I feel like we have something special perhaps on November 25th. You’ve got promotional firms like Main Events and Golden Boy. You’ve got Madison Square Garden as the venue, HBO Sports as the television company, those add up to a formula where we really could see something special on the night of November 25th.

The other element that makes that night interesting people say, “Gee, Thanksgiving weekend, people are busy.” HBO has traditionally found that that Saturday night is a really solid sports entertainment evening for viewership. Maybe it’s because people are traveling Wednesday and Thursday, maybe because by Friday they want to settle in on Saturday night and just stay home and watch live sporting events. It is actually a terrific sports viewing night. So, anyone who’s thinking, “Oh gee, it’s going to get buried on Thanksgiving weekend with family celebrations,” there’s a window for some real live sports entertainment and we think we’re going to hit it.

The other thing I wanted to mention is, on behalf of Peter Nelson, Tony Walker and Jonathan Galst and the rest of the HBO family, we do have a tripleheader, this Saturday night on HBO at 10:00. Many of our people and executives are on the West Coast today, but as I mentioned to Sergey, they will certainly be back in New York and at the final press conference. All of our executives will be back and we want to welcome Slava to the HBO broadcast. He has been on HBO Latino, I believe, twice now. He’s actually familiar to the HBO subscriber family, with the HBO Latino platform, but this will be his debut on HBO Boxing After Dark®.

Last comment I wanted to make: I was doing a little bit of research, if that’s the right word, and I think everyone, especially fight fans and boxing media, love it when fighters fight frequently. This fight on November 25th will mark the 10th time that Sergey has fought since January of 2014. This will also be on November 25th, Shabranskyy”s 10th fight since January of 2015. So, that kind of frequency, I think is ideal for boxing fans to connect with these fighters. And obviously, from a television perspective, the more they’re on TV, the more you can showcase them. We’re pumped up for November 25th. We will see you then.

KD: Thank you so much, Ray. Again, I can only just echo what Ray had to say about bringing together Main Events, Golden Boy, Madison Square Garden and HBO. These are the crown jewels of the sport. I think that it’s wonderful to know that after– my company is coming up on its 40th anniversary, and most of that time we’ve spent– we’ve been working with HBO, and it’s always a pleasure. I can’t tell you how important it is to us to be able to do that.

Now, I’m going to bring up an old friend. Long, long ago Rolando Arellano was the manager of Fernando Vargas. As part of that journey on HBO, he must have fought, I don’t you know how many times?

Rolando Arellano: Many, many times. I think since he was 19 years old.

KD: Yes. And Vargas had a spectacular career there. And Rolando, as I said, was half the fun, really, of working with Fernando. And it’s wonderful to have him back here today, now that he is the executive in charge of fighter relations for Golden Boy Promotions, and I’m going to bring him up to introduce Slava Shabranskyy and tell us all about what he expects to have happen.

RA: Actually, my boxing birth, was given over at Main Events, and I’ve learned so much from Kathy, and from Patrick English, from Jolene, and many of the other staff members. But, good afternoon, my name is Rolando Arellano on behalf of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and all the staff members, it’s a great pleasure to be here. We thank all of you for joining us today. It’s also an absolute pleasure to be working with my dear friends again over at Main Events, of course, HBO, and the one and only Madison Square Garden.

As we all know in the recent years, there has been a complete portfolio of Eastern European boxers that have taken boxing by storm. Golden Boy now has a pleasure to represent one of these boxers by the name of Slava Shabranskyy. He’s actually from the Ukraine. Slava has a record of 19-1, with 16 by way of knockout, he is currently the WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight Champion. It is my pleasure ladies and gentlemen, at this point in time, to introduce a champ, Slava Shabranskyy.

Vyacheslav Shabranskyy: Good afternoon, it’s a great pleasure to be at New York. I’m excited to be fighting at Madison Square Garden and on HBO. I’m excited to be fighting a great ex-world champion Sergey Kovalev. I look forward to bring the best in me for this fight is the only thing. Thank you, see you November 25th.

KD: I want to make a point of saying that, we worked really hard to find someone who was willing to fight Sergey Kovalev; it’s not easy. A lot of people didn’t want to even take our call, a lot of people didn’t even ask, how much? They just weren’t available. But when we called Golden Boy, we had an answer in about an hour and that speaks to the professionalism of the people over at Golden Boy. It also speaks to the professionalism of this gentleman to my side, Mr. Shabranskyy. This is the way boxing is supposed to be. Fighters are supposed to want to fight each other and it’s refreshing when it happens and, generally, those turn out to be the best fights. Now I am going to introduce to you Sergey’s manager, and also my friend, Mr. Egis Klimas.

Egis Klimas: Good afternoon everybody. I am very happy to be back here in New York City and Madison Square Garden. In Sergey’s career, he has never fought here in New York, so is very excited. We have a lot of fans. A lot of people that when he fights somewhere else like Las Vegas or Los Angeles, many people are coming from New York to see him. Now we’re going to be able to bring Sergey’s fights to New York, so we’re going to have a lot of fans.

There are a lot of Ukrainian fans here in New York, so hopefully Madison Square Garden Theater is going to be sold out. We would like to thank HBO for giving us this opportunity. Especially thanks to my fighter Sergey Kovalev for coming back after all those nonsense things. I believe he is clear-headed completely. I would say completely clear-minded coming for the next fight.

As far as Slava, I have known Slava for some time. He was coming to my gym sparring with– actually never sparred Sergey, but he was sparring with some other of my fighters. The one thing he has for sure is his nickname “Lion Heart”; he has a heart. So, I know that fight is going to be really good fight for both of the guys, and I just wanted to wish good luck to both of them.

KD: Thank you, Egis. A man who I’ve had the pleasure of introducing many, many times, he is the former unified light heavyweight champ of the world and I think he’s going to be that again, sooner than perhaps we thought, and this is the next step in the road to achieve that goal, and so here he is, Sergey Kovalev.

Sergey Kovalev: Hi, everybody, we’re happy to be here in New York for first time. My fight coming up November 25th and really happy to fight in East Coast again. I’ve fought in New Jersey, Atlantic City, but never fought in New York. I want to say thanks to my team, promoter Kathy Duva and my manager, Egis Klimas, and HBO. Also, to Team Slava Shabranskyy. Personally, to Slava Shabranskyy, that he approved to fight me November 25th. I will back stronger than I was before. It’s my goal right now to prove everybody and for myself that I am still strong fighter and I can be world champion again.That I have two last losses, it’s just like a huge lesson for me. Not like for the boxer, just in my life. I made a lot of analysis from these losses and I hope I will be much stronger than I was before. Thank you very much for your support and see you in November. Thank you, very much.

KD: Thank you Sergey. One little plug I want to put in. We have a nice little show coming up on October 5th at the Mohegan Sun. It’s another Main Events’ Mohegan Sun’s Rising Stars show. If you can make it out, you should come. It’s a beautiful card with Vaughn Alexander fighting Elvin Ayala in the main event. It’s going to be tremendous.

Question: Tim Dalberg from AP would like to know your reaction to the announcement of Andre Ward’s retirement.

SK: If it’s 100% true, it’s good for the boxing. It’s good for the boxing. We’re ready for fighting again for these titles and makes interesting fights between great fighters. Right now, in our division, a lot of good and strong fighters who wants to get this title. This would be very, very good fight for the boxing fans.

Question: Do you think his retirement is real or it’s for publicity?

SK: I don’t know. I don’t think about him at all. Because I’m looking forward to get my goals. That was my last two fights, it is already history. I forgot about those.

Questions: Are you disappointed of the possibility that you would not get a third fight?

SK: Yes and no. If this fight can happen very quickly, I’m happy. If like long time waiting, just to fighting close to titles, it’s no good. I want to be best in this division. I wanted to fight with the best fighters in this division.

Question: Do you have an update on your trainer search?

SK: I’m not looking for a coach. Just like everything counts as camps. Just have patient. My team will be complete in my training camp and in the ring also.

Question: When do you begin training?

SK: When? Next Monday.

Question: Do you go to Big Bear first like you normally do?

SK: It depends from the weather. From the weather in Big Bear.

Question: I would like to know if you find the timing of Andre Ward’s retirement strange. Is he trying to upstage you?

SK: His team and his self can’t play, he’s like mentally the games as they did before rematch. I don’t know, I don’t care at all.

Question: You said that you are starting next week at Big Bear. Is there a possibility that you work with Abel Sanchez?

SK: No.

Question: Supposedly Andre Ward left those titles vacant. Of course, everybody is looking towards vacant titles. If you don’t reach that goal, would you go after Superman Stevenson?

SK: I’m ready fighting anybody, but my goal to fight for the title as soon as possible. But right now, my fight is against Slava Shabranskyy and I have a focus on this fight. After this fight, will be understanding for me next way.

Question: Virgil Hunter had reached out, I think, and you kind of humored the idea of having him as your trainer if Andre was to move to cruiserweight or retire. Is that still a possibility to have Virgil Hunter be your new trainer?

SK: I thought about it, but didn’t decide it. I still thinking, but is good offer maybe, or maybe not. Who knows? I can’t get back to team of my opponent who I hate. Right now, two persons inside me like wrestling yes or no. It’s not easy to say yes or no. Just I keep going myself right now. I already almost understand who will be in my team. But I not ready announce it, because I’m not sure 100% ready they or not. But I already decided who I want to see in my training camp, in my team.

Question: Sergey, will this match-up with Shabranskyy determine if you stay at light heavyweight or move up to cruiserweight after this match-up?

SK: Cruiserweight very good because you can eat more in your diet. I understand now that I’m small for cruiserweight. Guys are losing weight from over 200 pounds and in the fight, they can have a weight like 210, 215 and more pounds. I am 185 to 190 maximum, it’s difficult to make 175 for one day; after this I get weight back and I feel good. I think so no.Maybe in future will try but not right now.

SK: Thank you very much.

KD: All right, thank you, everyone. Thank you for your time and we’ll see you in November 25th and I hope October 5th.

About Kovalev-Shabranskyy: The Saturday, November 25 bout between Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy is a 10-round light heavyweight match-up at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event is promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions and will be televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. Tickets range from $50 to $350 and are available at ticketmaster.com and the Madison Square Garden Box Office.

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New York, NY: Tickets go on sale Tuesday, September 19 at noon for the upcoming showdown between former Unified Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) and Vyacheslav “Lion-Heart Chingonskyy” Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) which takes place on Saturday, November 25 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Tickets for this exciting event are priced between $50 and $350 and are available at ticketmaster.com and the Madison Square Garden box office. From Monday, September 18 at noon until Tuesday, September 19 at 11:00 am select fans can purchase tickets in advance using the exclusive presale code.

Click Here to Purchase Tickets on Ticketmaster

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy will be promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions, and televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. Kovalev is a former three-belt light heavyweight world champion and Shabranskyy is currently ranked #3 by the WBC and #2 by the WBA at light heavyweight. With both fighters having greater than an 80% knockout-to-win ratio expect this fight to be filled with fireworks!

About Kovalev-Shabranskyy: The Saturday, November 25 bout between Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy is a 10-round light heavyweight match-up at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event is promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions and will be televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. Tickets go on sale September 19, 2017 and are available at ticketmaster.com and the Madison Square Garden Box Office.

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New York, NY: Former Unified Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) returns to the ring Saturday, November 25 at The Theater Madison Square Garden to take on hard-hitting contender Vyacheslav “Lion-Heart Chingonskyy” Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) in a 10-round light heavyweight showdown.

Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy will be promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions, and televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Tickets for this exciting event will go on sale soon.

The Krusher, 34, from Chelyabinsk, Russia, rose to the top of the pound-for-pound rankings as he quickly tore through the light heavyweight division, stopping 26 of his 33 opponents. He won the WBO Light Heavyweight Title from Nathan Cleverly in 2013 when he stopped the then-unbeaten champion in Cleverly’s backyard. After three straight title defenses, all knockouts, Kovalev dominated future Hall-of-Famer Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins in a unanimous decision shutout to add the WBA and IBF belts to his collection. He continued his run as the unified light heavyweight champion for two more years before meeting undefeated champion and Olympic gold medalist Andre “SOG” Ward in Las Vegas and on HBO pay-per-view. Kovalev dropped two controversial and hard-fought losses to the current pound-for-pound king.

Now, Sergey Kovalev is ready to write the next chapter of his career. Before returning to the United States from a summer in Russia, he spent time at a monastery in Greece to clear his head and prepare mentally and spiritually for his climb back to the top of his division. Kovalev said, “I learned a lot from my fights with Andre Ward. When you don’t win and when you suffer adversity, it makes you stronger. It also shows you who your real friends are. I feel like I cleaned out my life and now I’m ready to start fresh. I’m very excited to get back in the ring, and fight at Madison Square Garden for the first time, and I’m focused on the future. I’m not looking back.”

Shabranskyy, 30 of Zhytomyr, Ukraine, and fighting out of Los Angeles, California has quickly made a name for himself in the light heavyweight division. “Slava” made his professional debut in 2012 with 17 straight victories and 14 knockouts. His only career blemish is a hard-fought TKO loss to Sullivan Barrera, the Cuban sensation who is currently ranked #3 by the WBC and #2 by the WBA at light heavyweight. Since his loss to Barrera, Shabranskyy has two straight wins both coming by way of knockout including his most recent win over Todd Unthank May where he secured the WBC USNBC Light Heavyweight Title. This is Shabranskyy’s opportunity to shoot to the top of his division if he can pull off an upset of the former unified champion.

“I’ve been waiting for this fight a long time. I will take this chance to show everyone my abilities and qualities in the ring,” Shabranskyy said. “My coach, Manny Robles and I have been working on movement and defense, which together with my natural power will be more than enough to defeat a great fighter such as Kovalev. I’m proud to represent USA and Ukraine at this fight.”

Main Events CEO Kathy Duva said, “The Theater at Madison Square Garden is really a perfect place for Sergey to start the next chapter of his career. He needs to go out and remind people why they love the Krusher. Sergey is an exciting fighter who is a pleasure to watch in the ring and that’s what everyone is going to see on November 25th.”

“Vyacheslav Shabranskyy is back, and ready to prove he will do everything to climb to the top, including facing a top-level fighter such a Kovalev.” said Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya. “Shabranskyy is stronger and smarter inside the ring, and will show off his mastered talent when he faces Sergey. We are excited to partner with Kathy Duva and the Main Events team yet again for an amazing show that will no doubt bring the action.”

About Kovalev-Shabranskyy: The Saturday, November 25 bout between Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy is a 10-round light heavyweight match-up at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event is promoted by Main Events and Krusher Promotions in association with Golden Boy Promotions and will be televised live on HBO Boxing After Dark beginning at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

Ticket information will be available soon.

FOLLOW US:

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