Sergey Kovalev Aims to Run Over the Jean Pascal Roadblock Toward Adonis Stevenson

---

It doesn’t really seem that long ago when Sergey Kovalev disposed of future Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins rather easily. The Russian expatriate did knock down “The Alien,” but he didn’t stop him, when Kovalev won by unanimous decision on Nov.7, 2014, in Atlantic City, N.J., to win the WBA and IFB light heavyweight titles.

What the 31-year-old Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KO) did learn, however, was patience. It was an invaluable tenet that John David Jackson, trainer of “Krusher,” had been preaching to him for some time. He needed to go 12 rounds with Hopkins for the lesson to be completely absorbed.

Now it looks like Jean Pascal may be the sorry recipient of what Kovalev gained, when the two meet at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada, on HBO Boxing’s March 14 main event.

“Pascal is a strong fighter and a good fighter, but I don’t know if he’s ready for me,” Kovalev said. “The Hopkins fight taught me patience. I found out you can win by being patient and he didn’t let me come at him the way I like. I had to be patient to go to Hopkins.”

Related » Video: Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev’s Greatest Hits

Kovalev has undergone a life change recently, with a child entering his life. He’s risen in prominence in the boxing community, collecting a few accolades off his 2014 campaign as Ring Magazine’s and Sports Illustrated’s Fighter of the Year. He says that he’s grown to become even more responsible for his current station in boxing, and his son, Aleksandr, gives him more motivation to remain disciplined. In fact, Kovalev had waited until after the Hopkins fight to see his wife, Natalia, and son for the first time in person, unwilling to break his routine.

It speaks of his commitment toward making an even larger impact on the boxing landscape in 2015.

“Right now, every fight is important to me and it leads to something bigger,” Kovalev said. “I have to throw my focus into fighting Jean Pascal and he is a tough opponent who I have to be concerned about. I don’t want to lose my belts. I didn’t treat myself to a new car after the Hopkins fight. Maybe later. I have to face Pascal and I’ll start thinking about [Adonis] Stevenson later this year.

“I don’t know if Stevenson is afraid or me or not. I really don’t think that much about him. But I would like to fight him and unify the titles. Every fighter wants to add more titles, and that’s what I want to do. That’s my goal. I know beating Pascal is the next step toward a unification fight with [Stevenson]. I want to keep fighting on HBO and prove I belong there. I say this: each fight is different, because each opponent is different. I can beat somebody easy. Pascal had problems with Hopkins, who I beat easy. It depends on the situation. I will say Pascal will see a problem.”

Pascal is 3-1-1, with 1 no-decision in his last seven fights. It includes a unanimous-decision loss to Hopkins in May 2011, and a dominant 12-round victory over what appeared to be a shot Lucian Bute in January 2014. That recent record, though, wouldn’t appear to instill an overwhelming belief he can get by someone like Kovalev. In Pascal’s mind it does.

“Sergey had a great fight against Bernard,” Pascal admitted. “In my mind I won both fights against Hopkins. Earlier in my career I defeated Darnell Boone. I whooped him and it took Kovalev two fights to defeat him. He has been dropped twice but I have never been knocked down in my career. That is why I am calling for an epic night on March 14.”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.