LAS VEGAS ? Sergey Kovalev accomplished what he set out to do. The unified light heavyweight champion totally outclassed and finished Nadjib Mohammedi in the third round Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center to retain the WBA, WBO and IBF belts.
Mohammedi had no business in the ring with a powerful and talented fighter like Kovalev, and it showed. He did next to nothing and went down on the first hand punch Kovalev landed.
Kovalev knocked Mohammedi down with three consecutive right hands in the second, then stopped him in the third after a right hand-left hook combination.
Mohammedi went down, clearly in pain as if his nose were broken, as referee Kenny Bayless tolled the count.
The end came at 2:38 of the third, in what was a very predictable outcome.
These are the kinds of bouts boxing can do without, but at least Kovalev didn?t let this go on a long time.
?When you have to fight that guy, you have to go out and close the show,? Kovalev promoter Kathy Duva said. ?That?s what people love about Sergey Kovalev: He closes the show. A lot of guys, when they?re in that spot, you watch them waltz around the ring. But Sergey did what he had to do.?
That was pretty much all the good that could be said about that bout. Kovalev next will move on to a Nov. 28 bout in his hometown of Moscow. Duva said the match will be offered to Artur Beterbiev, who is managed by Al Haymon and defeated Kovalev in the amateurs. Duva and Haymon don?t work together well, though, and the match is unlikely to happen. If he turns it down, Duva said she?ll look for the next best option.
The problem, though, is that there aren?t a lot of good ones. One option who would make sense ? super middleweight champion Andre Ward ? is playing the tired, old boxing dance of stringing it out.
Duva said she spoke to representatives of Roc Nation, which promotes Ward, and she said they indicated to her that they don?t want to fight Kovalev right now.
She said that she was told Ward wants to pursue a fight with middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, who announced an Oct. 17 pay-per-view bout against David Lemieux on Saturday, before thinking of a Kovalev fight.
Kovalev, who is now 28-0-1 with 25 knockouts, is a legitimate top-tier fighter who is boxed in without any real marketable opponent.
He had disdain for Mohammedi and shouted at him to get up after his second-round knockdown.
?I wanted more rounds,? Kovalev said. ?I wanted him to look like a clown. I wanted him to look foolish.?
That he did. Mohammedi simply looked overmatched, like a guy who had no business being rated No. 1 by any sanctioning body and certainly not in the ring fighting the best light heavyweight in the world.
But this is the kind of thing that has historically torn down the sport.
Kovalev did his part by coming to fight. After a dreadful first round in which Mohammedi did everything but run laps around the Mandalay Bay Events Center, Kovalev began to find the range in the second.
He landed a hard right that backed Mohammedi to the ropes, then landed two more to put the Frenchman down. Mohammedi got up, and they wrestled for the better part of the remainder of the round, with Kovalev flinging him down twice.
In the third, a wary Mohammedi moved away until Kovalev landed another hard right. This time, he brought a left behind it that dropped Mohammedi.
?I couldn?t see,? Mohammedi said.
View gallery .
Sergey Kovalev knocks down Nadjib Mohammedi during their light heavyweight fight. (AP) He couldn?t compete even at his best, and so no one was complaining when he failed to beat the 10-count.
?It was a short show,? Kovalev said. ?People didn?t see boxing. I wanted it to continue. I tried to go longer. ? I am ready for anybody.?
After the Moscow show, he?ll come back in February or March of next year, Duva said. Given that it doesn?t appear Ward will be ready to fight at that point, it will be on to another less-than-compelling fight.
One possibility is Jean Pascal, who scored a controversial victory over Yunieski Gonzalez in an excellent bout on the undercard. Kovalev stopped Pascal last year but with no one else, Pascal might be the first 2016 opponent.
The business of boxing has to change, and the notion of these interim and tune-up fights have to end. A Kovalev-Ward fight could be excellent.
The wait to get to that point, will be interminable.
And that?s the sad truth about the state of boxing in 2015.
