Ranking the Best Opponents for Sergey Kovalev's Next Fight

Heading into Saturday night, everyone knew a lot about Sergey Kovalev.

He was a rugged guy. He was a powerful guy. He was a successful guy.

And what everyone has now discovered from the Bell Centre in Montreal, he's a vicious guy, too.

The three-belted light heavyweight champion flat-out admitted to HBO's Max Kellerman that he'd eased off the gas at times in order to prolong the violence in what wound up as a seven-round TKO of second-time challenger Jean Pascal.

The two had fought 10 months ago in the same building, and Kovalev was a winner in Round 8. But the Haitian-turned-Canadian complained enough about the stoppage and added enough heat to a subsequent promotion—even labeling the champion as racist along the way—that he was given another chance.

But neither the time lapse nor the addition of trainer Freddie Roach made any difference.

Instead, Kovalev was a grinding, thudding automaton from the start, drilling Pascal with right hands and hard jabs to the head and left hooks to the body while winning nearly every second of every round.

Pascal was ready to go by the fifth and pleaded with Roach to let him have another three minutes after being beaten from corner to corner in the sixth. More of the same continued in the seventh, and Pascal gave no argument when Roach finally did pull the plug before the eighth began.

"Yes, I wanted to fight more rounds," Kovalev told Kellerman. "To punish him more."

Statistics provided by CompuBox showed Kovalev landed 165 of 412 shots, including 78 power shots, compared to just 30 of 108 punches from Pascal, who managed just 16 power connects.

Given the uncertainty of the boxing climate these days, it’s difficult to chart a logical A-B-C course for any fighter—even an established dominator like Kovalev. Nevertheless, we lined up five high-profile candidates we believe would make good foils for the next time he climbs through the ropes.

Click through to see our choices and feel free to chime in with your own in the comments section.

5. Juergen Braehmer

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OK, everyone, let's have three, ummm...cheers for the WBA.

A recent declaration by the organization's president, Gilberto Mendoza Jr., indicated it was finally ready to wean itself off a long predilection for idiocy by culling a few of its signature nonsense titles.

You know, the sorts of titles that allow guys like Ruslan Chagaev, Daniel Jacobs and Juergen Braehmer to be called "world champions" while they occupy weight classes alongside guys like Tyson Fury, Gennady Golovkin and, well...Kovalev.

Boxing media icons like Dan Rafael lauded the apparent change of heart. Though, truth told, it's been guys like Rafael who've clouded the mix by putting backstories ahead of sanctioning stupidity and framing fighters like Jacobs as actual titleholders.

Nevertheless, for Braehmer, it may eventually turn out to be a break.

If Mendoza chooses to make the WBA's legitimate champions face the impostors to eliminate dubious jewelry, that'll mean the 37-year-old German would be on a short list of mandatories spread across the three organizations for whom Kovalev is now deemed king.

His promoter, Kalle Sauerland, told Sky Sports last year that "unification"—WBA style—was on his mind.

"We certainly would like to organize this fight," Sauerland said. "Kovalev, he is a great puncher. However, Braehmer is not a weak puncher. Besides that, Juergen is the more technical boxer. It would be a great fight."

4. Gennady Golovkin

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Jean Pascal is a nice enough fighter to have pummeled twice.

But if Kovalev and his people truly want to ratchet up the interest level, they need look no further than a middleweight finding similar difficulty in getting guys to share a dance card.

Gennady Golovkin is another Eastern European export with a long stretch of dominant performances and a short list of big names willing to do more than talk about fighting him.

Bernard Hopkins and his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, implied he’d have been next on the list had Hopkins beaten Kovalev 16 months ago, and they kept the dream alive even after the loss, presuming the old-timer ever decides to return after taking the worst beating of his long career.

As for intrigue, look no further than trainer Abel Sanchez’s suggestion that Kovalev was “afraid of Golovkin when he was in the ring” during some sparring sessions in 2013.

As Russian-Kazakh encounters go, this one’s a surefire barnburner.

3. Artur Beterbiev

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It’d be easy to dismiss chatter from nine-fight pro Artur Beterbiev as just that. Chatter.

But a closer look at the unbeaten 31-year-old’s resume indicates it might be something more.

Beterbiev beat Kovalev, his Russian countryman, twice in the amateurs by decisions—albeit ones that Kovalev dismisses as products of bad judging. Nevertheless, Beterbiev turned pro in 2013 and has won each of those nine fights, all by stoppage, while fighting just 26 total rounds.

Among his victims are former IBF champion Tavoris Cloud, who didn’t make it out of Round 2 in September 2014, and Gabriel Campillo, an ex-WBA title claimant who was stopped in four rounds last April—two years after he’d been halted a round earlier in a meeting with Kovalev.

Beterbiev was in line for an eliminator to determine one of Kovalev's next alphabet mandatories, before a shoulder injury dropped him off the calendar. But not off the radar. 

“When I step in the ring, I don’t have a friend,” Beterbiev told BoxingScene.com. “I want to continue to get better until I face Sergey Kovalev again. And I will beat him again.”

Not surprisingly, Kovalev sees things a bit differently.

“First earn a fight with me,” he told BoxingScene.com, referring to Beterbiev. “And then I will punish you.”

If the new kid in town is anything near what he’s billed, we might be onto something.

2. Adonis Stevenson

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The lineal “win this one, advance to the next” concept that holds other sports together means little in boxing, where matches are dictated by who works with whom and who’s willing to pay how much.

Such is the case with a would-be unifier with Adonis Stevenson, who can claim the legitimate “beat the man who beat the man” status as the division’s rightful kingpin but did little to curry favor with fans when he stepped away from a surefire Kovalev match and signed on with Showtime.

He did so in order to get his own fight with Bernard Hopkins before Kovalev got to him, but B-Hop flipped the script by ditching Stevenson’s stall tactics to cross network lines and head back to HBO himself.

It’s going to take a fair bit of back-room television dealing to get this one back on course, particularly after Kovalev promoter Kathy Duva pronounced it near dead in the water to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times earlier this week. But if power brokers on both sides are willing, there’s plenty of monetary reason to get it done.

Stevenson, for his part, at least looked ready to rumble on Saturday, arriving to the ring during Kovalev's post-fight interview and gesturing as if he were eager for an opportunity to take his shot. 

Channeling Carl Weathers from Rocky, just imagine: Superman vs. the Krusher, "sounds like a damn monster movie.”

All that's left is to print tickets and watch folks line up around the block.

1. Andre Ward

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Welcome to the latest version of “the one everyone is talking about.”

Now that unbeaten former super middleweight king Andre Ward is back and figures to stay awhile, it’s only natural he’s being talked about in connection with big-name foes seeking fights.

Enter Kovalev.

Former middleweight and light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins, who was dropped and pummeled by Kovalev in late 2014, suggested to Bleacher Report that Ward, a former Olympic gold medalist, would provide precisely the type of foil the Russian needs to further boost a burgeoning profile.

“I don’t see it in a year or two years from now, I see it within a fight or two,” Hopkins said. “I saw (Ward) look great in the last fight and he’ll look better in the next one and his competition is going to step up. That’s a superfight, definitely. As long as both guys continue to win, it’s absolutely a superfight.”

In fact, Kovalev told CBSSports.com that the fight is a near certainty.

“(The Ward) fight will happen, yes,” he said. “It will be an interesting fight and a very exciting fight because Andre Ward is a very talented guy. He's champion of the world. He's one of the best pound-for-pound. One of the best. It's a big name and he's a big boxer and a big talent.”