Who's Next? Boxer Sergey Kovalev Is Running out of Victims at Light Heavyweight

Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs), the WBA, IBF and WBO light heavyweight champion, is the scariest man in boxing, a thudding power puncher who can turn out anyone's lights with either hand. Scarier still, he's a power puncher who's learned to box, setting up his shots with feints, jabs and aplomb. 

Mere hyperbole?

Ask poor Nadjib Mohammedi, who was dropped by a right hand to the temple in the second round Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and sent scurrying to the mat a second time in the third with a left hand right on the button. Mohammedi didn't want anymore after that. And who could blame him, as speculation in the broadcast booth turned to which part of his face was likely broken.

Fighter	Kovalev	Mohammedi
Total Punches Landed	67	17
Total Punches Attempted	170	96
Percentage	39%	18%

As Grantland's Rafe Bartholomew explained, Kovalev fights like his opponent owes him money, stalking his foe mercilessly around the ring and screeching at them to get up for more when they fall down. This doesn't just happen to opponents like Mohammedi, who have the unfortunate privilege of being coached by Kovalev's despised former trainer, Abel Sanchez—it happens to every opponent:

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Kovalev fights with a vicious streak that comes off as rare even among prizefighters. He walks opponents down and keeps shooting thudding straight right hands and lashing left hooks until he breaks through their guards and leaves them broken. And he does so with a demeanor that suggests he's not just doing this because he's a professional athlete whose job it is to win boxing matches, but also that he does it because he is in touch with his inner sadist. Kovalev appears to enjoy hurting people who challenge him, and he does not seem at all conflicted about it.

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"He has an edge about him that even (middleweight star Gennady) Golovkin doesn't have," Kovalev's manager, Kathy Duva, told Bleacher Report's Kelsey McCarson. "There's just this edge in him where it's like 'I hope he doesn't turn it on me.' It's almost evil, and that's what's so delicious about him."

TIM LARSEN/Associated Press

This aura is helping turn Kovalev into a star, something that would have been inexplicable just a few short years ago but that, today, seems less and less improbable every time he fights. 

"It's a challenge, but one we've seen in the past with fighters that speak limited English," HBO Sports President Ken Hershman told Bleacher Report. "Most of the time you overcome it by their personalities in and out of the ring. I think that's what makes Gennady Golovkin or Canelo Alvarez or Sergey Kovalev so engaging. Not only are they spectacularly entertaining fighters in the ring, but when you meet them, they're so different outside the ring. Their personas come through and the language barrier seems to melt away. People are drawn to their energy." 

The problem for Kovalev has less to do with his formidable presence in the ring or his growing stardom outside of it and everything to do with the dearth of available talent in his weight class. For the time being, anyone tied to Al Haymon can be crossed off as a potential opponent. That means not only no Adonis Stevenson, but no Andrzej Fonfara, Eleider Alvarez, Lucian Bute, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Edwin Rodriguez or, despite the rumors, Artur Beterbiev.

His options are, in truth, limited to fighters who are either signed to Main Events (Kovalev's promoter) or can be signed. Isaac Chilemba is an obvious future opponent for Kovalev. Both Jean Pascal and Yunieski Gonzalez, who fought an evenly contested bout on the undercard, appear to have potential for Kovalev down the road as well.

But none of these fights will be the money fights HBO truly desires.

Kovalev could do what some of the mightiest light heavyweight punchers have historically done and hit the weights, stop going in the sauna and move to heavyweight. Against some of the smaller heavyweights, he'd be successful. A fight with Alexander Povetkin might even do huge business in Russia. But against the physical giants of the division—Wladimir Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua—Kovalev would be dangerously outgunned.

Alexis Cuarezma/Getty Images

That leaves one mega-fight still on the table for HBO—a bout with 168-pound kingpin Andre Ward, one Kovalev told HBO's Max Kellerman after the fight he'd be more than happy to consider.

"Max, again I repeat, I'm ready for any fighter," Kovalev said. "Any fight. Any opponent. It's boxing. It's sport. If fans want to see this fight and promoters want to make this fight, I'll be happy." 

Any fight featuring Ward, who has fought only three times since 2011, has to be considered a long shot. But what a fight it would be! Offense against defense. East against West. Science versus savagery, a challenge worthy of both men and an opportunity to establish their claim as the sport's top pound-for-pound fighter in the coming post-Floyd Mayweather age. 

Ward, it's easy to forget, might be the top pound-for-pound fighter in the entire sport, every ounce the skilled competitor Mayweather is. Kovalev has never seen a fighter of that caliber—very few men have. Could he beat Ward? Perhaps. But if he fights Ward at his best, Kovalev's best simply may not be good enough.

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.