The Good and the Bad of Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward's No-Nonsense Mindsets

Undefeated light heavyweights Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward represent the very best the sport of boxing has to offer. Both fighters are near-perfect at what they do as fighters. Kovalev, the unified champion, is a destructive force who usually leaves his opponents in disheveled and concussed heaps of defeat once he has finished his work on them. Is there a more destructive force in boxing today?

Ward, perhaps the premier boxing technician of his era, is as smart, strong and skilled as any fighter ever. Boxing writer Bart Barry told me once Ward was the only fighter he watched in slow motion precisely because of how excellent he was in all phases of his craft.

In truth, Saturday night's fight between Kovalev and Ward is as big a superfight as we have seen in many years. Both fighters are A-side material. Both are undefeated and have shown elite quality for years now. Neither appears to have a single recognizable, or at least easily exploitable, weakness. They're both hardworking championship-winning fighters who always come into their fights prepared and always deliver exceptional performances.

Kovalev-Ward is huge.

But Saturday night's HBO pay-per-view, while likely the biggest fight of the year, will only be a tiny blip on the radar to the mainstream sports fans out there. Where last year's Mayweather-Pacquiao bonanza will someday be a case study in over-hyping a boxing event, Kovalev-Ward will not come close to generating the kind of buzz it deserves, which if we're being honest with ourselves is in hindsight as much as Mayweather-Pacquiao did.

Sadly, Kovalev-Ward buzz won't even come close to matching any of Mayweather or Pacquiao's other big fights either.

It's easy to see why. Where Mayweather was a savant at giving the media roundtables enough to write about for years and where Pacquiao was hyped by the well-groomed press machine that is Bob Arum's Top Rank Promotions, neither Kovalev nor Ward—or anyone in their camps really—have made all that much of an effort over the years to make waves anywhere except inside the boxing ring.

That isn't a blast at them or their public relations staff. Both fighters make themselves available for interviews and such just as they should, and their PR people are super accommodating. But you can tell what drives each man as a human being is less how something appears to be and more about what it actually is.

Bleacher Report chatted with both as the fight approaches. Kovalev was just as surly and scary as ever, while Ward was the same calm, collected person he seems on any other day.

Kovalev, according to Odds Shark, entered fight week a slight underdog to Ward despite being the naturally larger fighter and reigning division champion. I asked why he thought that might be.

"I don't care!" Kovalev growled. "Why would I care about some [expletive] someone else thinks about me? I am ready for this fight, and it can't get here fast enough."

If either of the two could generate attention the way Mayweather and Pacquiao could, it would probably be Kovalev. He's gruff at times, but people love that in fighters. Other times, he's downright scary. If the idea of him as such gives you pause, consider how many knockouts he scored after the tragic death of opponent Roman Simakov.

I'm not suggesting he's a psychopath. I'm simply saying Kovalev is a fighter who goes into fights looking to knock someone out no matter what. As much as people in this sport say things like that, very few actually have that mentality in totality the way Kovalev does. It's truly what makes him special.

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Ward, on the other hand, was as reflective and precise with his answers as his fighting style would suggest. But he said basically the same thing about generating hype for him and his fights. He doesn't care about it.

"There are a lot of fighters in the game today I've noticed that do a lot of talking," said Ward. "I understand where that comes form. It's part of our sport. It's confidence. You have to believe in yourself and stuff. But the action doesn't always match up to the talk."

Ward doesn't talk the talk so to speak. He does the other thing. If you look at his resume, Ward is legitimately one of the top performers in super middleweight history. One might even argue his supremacy there all time, and he has looked just as capable since moving up to 175 pounds. But how many times have you heard Ward suggest he is the best fighter in the sport?

Ward attributed his no-nonsense approach to his father—a single parent who raised two boys while owning a glass company. But in the same way Kovalev doesn't care about pleasantries or stroking egos before his bouts, deep down it's just who Ward is as a person.

"I just think there is something to be said about somebody who goes and does whatever the job is that they do and just strives for excellence on a day-to-day basis and don't need to highlight what they are doing."

Kovalev-Ward should be a bigger deal. It is easily the best of the year, and I would argue probably the best of the decade. These guys don't get the press some of their predecessors have generated, but when the bell rings on fight night, they are just as good and maybe better.

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And consider this: After the fight on Saturday night, the winner will very likely and very rightly assume the top spot in most pound-for-pound rankings out there. And while both gave lip service about how they would like to be No. 1 on those lists, the tone of their voices told me they really didn't care about such things.

In fact, Kovalev downright grumbled at me before he half-heartedly said: "Yes...I'm very excited for this fight pound-for-pound No. 1, and I'm ready.

But while they might deserve a bigger audience this weekend than they'll get, I think at least the audience that tunes in will be one that appreciates who these two fighters really are. Here is a case of top-tier, undefeated and proven boxers who are choosing to face each other when other easier fights could been had for easier money while they waited for the fight between them to build more into what it deserves.

There might be some not-so-great aspects of Kovalev and Ward being down-to-earth blue-collar fighters who are just focused on the craft. But the good of it—the almost anti-Mayweather-Pacquiao aspects of Kovalev-Ward—is worth more to the sport overall if it reminds us of just one very important thing.

Boxing doesn't need celebrities to be great. It just needs fighters who are willing to fight the best competition. That's what Kovalev and Ward are doing this weekend, and boxing could use a whole lot more of it.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.