Former light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) will be fighting Vyacheslav “Lion Heart’ Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) for the vacant World Boxing Organization 175lb. title in their fight next month on November 25 on HBO World Championship Boxing from Madison Square Garden in New York.
Kovalev’s promoters at Main Events recently petitioned the WBO organization to allow the fight against Shabranskyy to be for the vacant WBO 175 lb. title, and the organization granted their request by sanctioning the fight for the title. As such, Kovalev will be fighting the 30-year-old Shabranskyy for the WBO title that was recently vacated by Andre Ward with him retiring from boing.
This is a controversial move by the WBO to allow Kovalev and Shabranskyy to be fighting for their vacant title, because both guys have been recently beaten. Kovalev is coming into the fight with Shabranskyy having lost his last 2 fights against Ward. Granted, both fights were against a very good fighter, and both were controversial decisions. They still losses for Kovalev regardless, and you don’t normally see fighters with back to back losses getting a shot for a vacant WBO title.
It’s unclear why the WBO didn’t order #2 WBO Kovalev to face #1 WBO Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the vacant WBO title. That fight would make a lot more sense than for Kovalev to be fighting Shabranskyy, who is ranked No.10 with the WBO. #3 WBO Sullivan Barrera seems to be the forgotten man by both the WBA and WBO.
Barrera didn’t get a chance to fight for Andre Ward’s World Boxing Association title, as the WBA elevated their interim 175 lb. champion Dmitry Bivolv to full WBA champion without him even having to fight anyone for the belt. The WBO let Kovalev fight Shabranskyy for the title rather than someone higher ranked like Barrera or Gvozdyk.
Here’s the WBO’s top 15 ranking:
1. Oleksandr Gvozdyk
2. Sergey Kovalev
3. Sullivan Barrera
4. Marcus Browne
5. Anthony Yarde
6. Karo Murat
7. Mike Lee
8. Dominic Boesel
9. Manuel Cebellos
10. Vyachelsav Shabranskyy
11. Joe Smith Jr.
12. Robert Parzeczewski
13. Blake Caparello
14. Damien Hooper
15. Fanlong Meng
Sullivan Barrera will be fighting on the undercard of the Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy fight against Felix Valera in a 10-round fight. Barrera is with Main Events as well, which suggests that we could see Kovalev fighting him next if he’s able to get past Shabranskyy on November 25.
The way that Kovalev ran out of gas in his last 3 fights, he might not be able to defeat Shabranskyy. Ward wore Kovalev down with a combination of mauling him on the inside, and throwing body shots. In both fights, Kovalev gassed out around the 6th, and he was then easy pickings for Ward.
Last year, Kovalev faded in the second half of his fight with Isaac Chielmba on July 11 in Russia. Kovalev still won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but he struggled after he gassed out. Chilemba was easily beaten in his last fight in an 8th round stoppage loss to Gvozdyk on November 19 last year. Gvozdyk looked a lot better against Chilemba than Kovalev did.
Shabranskyy will surely e attacking Kovalev’s body the way that Ward did. Shabranskyy hits harder than Ward and Chilemba, so he might be able to produce comparable results as “SOG” if he can land enough power shots to his body. Kovalev has a new trainer Abror Tursunpulatov. Kovalev has reportedly been interested in being trained by Ward’s old trainer Virgil Hunter.
It’s unclear why Kovalev didn’t go in that direction. Hunter had said that he knows how to teach Kovalev not to get hit with so many body punches. It’s too bad Kovalev didn’t sign on Hunter, because he might have been able to help him. If Kovalev loses to Shabranskyy because of the body shots, then he might be sorry he didn’t go with Hunter as his trainer.
Kovalev vs. Shabranskyy begins at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. on HBO World Championship Boxing.