Into The Abyss: Krusher Shrugged-The Painful Fall From Grace Of Sergey Alexandrovich Kovalev.

"If thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee" - Friedrich Nietzsche

By no means is this article an attempt to make excuses or to sugarcoat the precipitous and brutal fall from grace of the Krusher, but its my attempt to put it into a proper context and make some sense of the sharp decline of one of the most sport's most talented and well rounded fighters, and yes, my personal favorite.

In spite of everyone now days putting up a facade of being warm and caring sensitive souls, the reality is, we're living in an incredibly harsh, unforgiving and caustic time, especially for anyone who lives any portion of their lives in the public eye. A time in which everyone is a critic and can voice their opinion about the foibles of everyone who doesn't live up to the lofty expectations the fans have set for them. All the while, their detractors lie in wait, looking for the tiniest stumble so they can put them on proverbial show trial and punish them for their perceived sins, no matter how insignificant. Sadly for the spin doctors and propagandists among us, making mountains out of molehills has become a modern day art, and make no mistake, far too many us are highly skilled artisans in this craft.

Yet what most never take the time to do, while in the grip of their mob mentality like fervor, is to take a step back, and look for a deeper cause as to why someone is faltering. While I'm no psychologist, and all this is is mere speculation on my part, I do think what I'm about to say holds some merit, it should be quite obvious to most of you, all you really need to do open your eyes and look, you'll see quite clearly what should be already be quite apparent to you.

In spite of the caricatures people paint of fighters, they're but mere mortals, not superhuman, they're riddled with self doubt, weaknesses, trepidation and flaws like the rest of us, no mater how much they may try to sweep under the carpet, it will always be there boiling like a cauldron beneath the surface. And for Sergey, there was a series of events that in all likelihood forced him to look at his chosen profession in an entirely different light. Many of these issues may have given him pause, and forced him to deeply contemplate the long term ramifications of the life he chose, and with that contemplation crept doubt, and ultimately loss of joy, interest and enthusiasm. The one thing that most fans of the Krusher connected with so deeply is how unerringly and some would say painfully human he is, in spite of how stoic he tries to be, he wears his heart on his sleeve, his thoughts and emotions come pouring out of him like an overactive uncontrollable volcano. His feelings and opinions are literally written on his face, they're that shallow, he has a hard time concealing anything, be it joy at winning a title, the despair of losing or his disdain for his opponent. Its there for the whole world to see. What you see is what you get. Which is why it shocks me that so few have connected all of the dots, they're there for all to see.

Where it Started.

Let's go back to his training camp for his November 8th match up against the legendary Bernard Hopkins, he was so hyper focused and dedicated in the lead up to the fight, he missed the birth of his first born son Aleksandr on October 20th. While it may have seemed like a good idea at the time, that's a memory that he'll never get the chance to experience again, that's an epoch in most people's lives especially for devout religious types like Kovalev, and he missed it, that had to take a mental toll. Was the short term joy of being fully prepared for a Boxing match and beating BHop worth missing a beautiful special event that will have long term ramifications on his life? In retrospect, probably not.

He followed up his win over Hopkins with two matches against Jean Pascal, and with it came countless accusations and constant mind games by Jean Pascal. I don't care about the details or his intentions behind the social media posts, whether malicious or just insensitive due to cultural differences or plain stupid and ignorant, that's irrelevant, and I don't want it brought up anymore. The point is, it happened and the fallout had a negative effect on Kovalev, whether he felt like his intentions were being misrepresented or that his name was being drug through the mud, he wanted to take it out on Pascal and punish him. Kovalev clearly has a dark side, as do many boxers, after all, this is a violent sport, so his a violent streak tends to come out when he's in the ring, he loses himself in the moment, he takes the trash talk personally and takes it out on his opponents. Yet the viciousness of the beating he doled out on Pascal in the second match, and some of the feedback he received afterward, may have had a deleterious effect on the psyche of Sergey.

After the death of Roman Simakov, Sergey went to a deep dark place, he attended church several times, blamed himself repeatedly, forced himself to relive the event countless times by watching it over and over, it tore him up inside, it was an incredibly traumatic event in his life. For a guy like Kovalev who's a man's man, who doesn't like sharing his emotions and talking about his feelings, its still all there, eating away at his insides constantly. Kovalev had a few months off after the death of Simakov to mentally recover, but the fact is, there's no way you can really recover from unintentionally taking the life of another human being, especially one that you kind of knew due to rising up the ranks with him around the same time. Its like painting over dirt, its always there below the surface, so Kovalev did what most tend to do, he went into denial and tried to block it from his memory, because coming to terms with something like that is just too painful to ever fully process, especially for someone who probably isn't too keen on therapy.

The Return To Yekaterinburg.

In my opinion, I think this moment marked the turning point in Sergey's personal and professional life. Sergey grew up in Russia and had been involved in the sport since the age of 11, growing up in the former USSR, he had the same trials and tribulations that many of the youths did in the poorer areas of the country, so to avoid a life in crime, which he was falling into, he like many young kids the world over, almost out of necessity took up Boxing as a way to keep him on the straight and narrow. Now I'm going to ask you to put yourselves in Kovalev's shoes for a second, he was never the best amateur, he wasn't the favorite son of Mother Rossiya, he was always second best to Beterbiev or Korobov or Mekhontsev, in his mind he never got the credit he deserved. So this big maladjusted angry kid turns pro at 26, and is taken by his manager Egis Klimas, to a far away land, the USA, where he doesn't speak the language, has no friends, no family, no money, but has a wife he has to take care of, so he has to pay the bills and do his job.

Instead of becoming a breakout star right out of the gate like Loma or Usyk, he spends the first few years of his pro career like every other boxer without the fanfare, basically making enough to pay the rent, certainly not enough in a sport where you'e literally required to put your life on the line. But sadly, that's all he knew how to do, there's was no Plan B or C. So aside from one short fight in Russia, after being in the US for 3 years, he went back to Russia to fight the toughest opponent of his career in Roman Simakov. After the tragedy that occurred, Kovalev went back to the USA and tried his hardest to push it under the carpet and put it in the back of his mind, and go on to live up to the hype and expectations that all of the fans put on his shoulders after he made his debut over here on NBCSN. What followed was his savage dispatchings of Boone, White, Campillo and Thompson, then the whirlwind of fame and fortune and eventual HBO exposure began, so from fighter's backyard to fighter's backyard he went, krushing all that came before him. His demons had been effectively locked away, because going at this pace, he probably barely had time to think.

Then came the turning point in Kovalev's career. Nothing could have been a worse idea than what followed the Pascal rematch, Duva and Klimas worked it out so that Kovalev could make his long awaited return to his homeland, and now that he was a big star, he could donate a truly adequate worthwhile purse to the family of Simakov. So the match against fellow Main Events fighter Isaac Chilemba was set, and not only was it set in Russia, but set in the scene of the most nightmarish moment in Sergey's life, the arena he fought Simakov in.... and with it came all the feelings of guilt, remorse, sadness, grief and alongside those feelings, probably a degree of soul searching, almost as if his life flashed before his eyes. Since he claimed the life of Simakov, Sergey went on to be a megastar, to claim title after title, to be the toast of the town in the US and adored by fanboys the world over, and most importantly to be a father and guess what, Roman is still dead. Yet here he is standing at the scene of the event that rocked him to this core. Most people do not react well when returning to the scene of their worst trauma, often times it triggers something deep inside that mentally shatters and wrecks them and at worst send them into a full blown downward spiral. From that night, Kovalev has never been the same, the Krusher ceased to exist that night, almost as if it all hit home, his world came crashing down on him. His performance was subpar, he seemed to pull his punches, not commit and at times seemed disinterested. Most likely he was.

 

How does it affect someone who is now not only a devoted husband but a father for them to think, potentially one of these days, they could be a victim and lose their life in the ring as well? Did that thought go through his head? If it did, don't you think that would make someone lose interest, lose their passion for doing what they loved? Kovalev's father abandoned him as a child, did the thought of not being there for his son cross his mind? Personally I believe the real world hit Sergey like a ton of bricks that night, and while I have zero proof of this theory of mine, the fact remains, he's never been the same since. He's become disillusioned, distant, dispassionate, almost lackadaisical, the old Krusher is gone, possibly never to return, maybe that trip to Yekaterinburg made Kovalev grow up, maybe it put what's important to him into its proper perspective. But having to process what to do in is life, being stuck in a career he's lost interest in, not knowing what else to do, feeling the enormous pressures that go along with walking away, and dealing with the fallout from his return home, like many people he didn't know how to deal or want to deal with all of the stresses he was feeling, so sadly he turned to drinking heavily.

The Aftermath

So along comes Ward and the screw job that followed in a country he was just starting to fall in love with, the betrayal he must've felt was probably off the charts. Kovalev isn't about that life, he seems like a no bull**** kind of guy that hates the politics of Boxing and the Machiavellianism that comes along with it across the board, it doesn't interest him, so all of the negotiations and diva behavior from Ward was foreign to him. Also the screwjob was equally foreign to him, he'd never experienced that before since he'd never came closed to getting screwed, after all most of his fights ended before the final bell.

Then the build up to the rematch, feeling abandoned by his adopted country, probably somewhat detached and emotionally aloof, the mind games starting hitting him like a ton of bricks, the scab was off and the wound was still bleeding profusely, it hadn't healed form the previous year and of all things, what he thinks is his friend that traitorous piece of trash John David Jackson stabs him in the back, that had to be the final straw. Some of this pain was self inflicted, he is far too prideful and stubborn as a mule to admit that someone else knows better than he, so he pulled further away, did his own thing, thinking he was invincible, buying into his own hype, didn't train properly, and paid the price. But never in his wildest dreams did he ever think he'd lose in the embarrassing way he lost, the effect of that had to be devastating. So he was screwed over by everyone, including HBO, who went from kissing his ass and praising his every move to turning on him and groveling at the feet of Ward. It was all too much for a fairly primitive no frills guy's guy to bear.

Kovalev isn't from America, he doesn't get PC culture, having to deal with the fallout from his various PR controversies, it probably didn't click, it most likely overwhelmed him and robbed him of his passion even more, he goes from being beloved by the masses, to abandoned by fans and hated by many of the same outlets in a day. His whole world came crumbling down, and this was a guy who'd already been through a lot. Think about it, when a few of the assholes attack and slander some of you on here, it takes a small mental toll, and the people on here or other message boards don't actually know who you are. Now imagine that being compounded because you're world famous and known on the grandest stage of them all, for the whole world to see, and pick and peck at incessantly. All of your personal failings, laid out and raw, and some to laugh at and take joy from. For a guy like Kovalev, it has to be incredibly disorienting.

Two feel good squash jobs which taught him nothing later, then came the Alvarez match, in my humble opinion, I think he looked fine against Eleider, his gas tank didn't seem as low as most want to make it out to be, I think he lost concentration and got caught, it happens. Kovalev didn't take him seriously and paid for it, it happens to the best of them, ask Stevenson and Jack, Boone and Edwards who are far from elite did the same to them. But Kovalev should have known better, been more adequately prepared and had a better game plan. His hubris and lack of focus ultimately got the best of him once again.

So if he was drinking through all of this... then add in the stress he's feeling pondering his next move.

Where does the Krusher go next?

I've long thought he's been stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of weight class. While he hasn't officially outgrown LHW, in a way he has, in order to stay there, he hasn't been able bulk up and put on muscle mass, otherwise he literally wouldn't be able to make weight, so he's just stuck it out, while his body outgrew it, he has remained at this weight, and he's went from looking lean and mean to spindly and at times scrawny. A scrawny Krusher isn't a powerful Krusher.

But what is he supposed to do? Move to Cruiserweight? He knows that would be an awful move, almost a suicide mission, he's way too damn small, hence the hard place I just referred to. Usyk, Gassiev, Briedis, Dorticos and possibly several others at this point brutally wreck Kovalev. So does he stay at LHW weakened, to face an army of young vicious lions looking to tear the old man to ribbons and add him to their ledger? Or risk a fateful move up north to challenge for a piddly title from the Glowacki's and Vlasov's of the division? Which could also be a bridge too far at this point. Or should he stick around for some catchweight prestige boosting non title showcase fights? No option looks particularly appealing does it?

I fear mentally Kovalev could be in a very very bad place for a long time to come. So keep that in mind, and try to be kind to this guy that's provided you all with so much entertainment over the last half a decade. And the last thing he needs is for all of the filth on social media ripping him to shreds like the braying hyenas that they are. Be nice to Sergey, pay him a visit on his various social media pages, and give him a kind word of encouragement, he probably needs it, and that goes for every other fighter in this sport that we so dearly love that are suffering or in pain, they all need to be shown respect and love, to make them feel they haven't wasted their lives for nothing. Show them some appreciation, all of them, even the guys you might not like, they deserve it.

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Hey, none of us are perfect are we? I tried to be fair and balanced with my article the other day, and I continued that trend over to this one.

 

I didn't forget it, I touched on it, and I wanted to go into detail, but I wanted to keep on track with the story about Simakov, and had I fully brought it up, I would have felt it necessary to go into it in detail, and I was getting tired of writing at the half way point. To be honest I could have turned this into a four post article, but if it was any longer, most would have just ignored it and not put in the effort, the lengths of my articles ask a lot from forum readers to begin with. In short, I edited myself, which I absolutely hate doing.

 

While I know you're joking here, that too. I was actually going to bring that up. Kovalev came here during the Obama administration, when the US and Russia was getting along, but in the last few years due to the media driven McCarthyite witch hunt of any and all things Russian, that can't feel good to all of the Russian immigrants that have come here, most legally and tried to make an honest life for themselves here.

 

That term is quite relative isn't it? To most people you don't get along with, and everybody has more than a few, you're usually considered an ass by them. According to everyone who know him, you say? His wife knows him, Gvozdyk knows him, Golovkin knows him, Kathy Duva knows him, Klimas knows him, they all seem to have a great deal of affection for the man. You ever consider that he's an ass to people he doesn't trust or doesn't like, and a lovely person to people he cares for? Like many of us?

After all, I'm an ass, and guess what, you're an ass. Does that mean both of us should be dismissed and treated unfairly, because a few people don't like us and disagree with us? No, of course not. FDR once said, "I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. You’ve all made a few people upset over your political careers. Which enemy are you most proud of?” His biggest enemy is a known traitor and a duplicitous rat, empty vessels make the most noise.

Steveson wasn't an ass, he was a criminal, big difference.