By Gregory Stangrit
With both fighters making weight, Sergey Kovalev’s Russian homecoming against Isaac Chilemba is ready to go on Monday July 11th.
The undefeated and unified WBO/WBA/IBF light heavyweight world champion will be looking to add to his impressive destruction of the 175-pound division when he takes on the well-schooled Chilemba, who, despite three points losses has never been stopped in 29 fights.
The iron-fisted Kovalev on the other hand has racked up 26 knockouts in his 29 wins and will be out to do what no one has done before by knocking out Chilemba in front of his home fans at the DIVS Arena in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
33-year-old Kovalev is lined up to face Andre Ward later this year in a super-fight but Malawi born Chilemba is looking to crash the party and is hoping the destructive Russian has unwisely overlooked him.
Chilemba is undefeated against Russian fighter. He holds victories over three Russian opponents - Maxim Vlasov, Denis Grachev and Vasily Lepikhin. He aims to make Kovalev the fourth. He wants to derail any hope that Kovalev has to move forward with a planned HBO Pay-Per-View showdown against Ward on November 19th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
"I made a promise to myself that I would never lose to a Russian. I am truly a believer that no two people are ever the same. There is only one individual. They might look alike. They might act alike. They might fight similar. They might be from the same country but they will never be the same. The fact that I have defeated three Russians before doesn’t count coming into this fight. I am fighting a completely different person. My goal is just to work hard and achieve my goal of never losing to a Russian fighter," Chilemba said.
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