Egis Klimas, manager of several notable EE fighters said those things in the latest interview with him (translated from Russian): About Kovalev: Klimas says Kovalev became disgusted with boxing after the first Ward fight. Also said he didn't give a damn about training before Eleider Alvarez bout, so Abror Tursunpulatov wanted to leave him during the preparation. Abror also advised him to quit boxing after the fight. Kovalev hired Buddy McGirt because McGirt is his neighbor basically. McGirt said he would terminate the contract if Kovalev didn't do what was told to him. Klimas doesn't believe that Kovalev is an alcoholic, "otherwise he couldn't be a pro athlete". The manager would be "very disappointed" if the Russian boxer committed those crimes he was charged with. About Gvozdyk: Gvozdyk wants to fight Eleider Alvarez if Alvarez beats Kovalev again. If he doesn't, he would like to fight Bivol. Gvozdyk will never fight his friend Kovalev that is for sure. Klimas vented about that Stevenson was leading on the cards against Gvozdyk, he said EE boxers never get a fair shake in North America. Klimas said the boxing judges are controlled by the most powerful promoters in North America and EE boxers are not the ones that are enjoying privileges - despite that almost all American boxing coaches want to train EE boxers now. About Usyk: Usyk will fight at heavyweight. But who will be his opponent? Number one priority is fighting Joshua, "but Hearn didn't give a honest answer to us about that" said Klimas. Ortiz wants a rematch against Wilder instead of fighting Usyk. Povetkin had surgery and hasn't even started training. Klimas said it is a joke that the heavies are avoiding a cruiserweight. Usyk will fight in April but the opponent is unknown. Klimas also said that his best young prospect is Meiirim Nursultanov (new Kazakh middleweight!).
Good stuff. He's right about EE fighters on the cards here. Nobody's immune to it either- heck, a "professional" scored Loma-GRJ a draw. Any of them fighting here need to fight accordingly, because the benefit of the doubt isn't going to happen.
At least he's aware of that and he needs to drum it into the heads of all of his fighters too and make sure he and their teams push as hard as they can for the appointment of (shock horror) neutral officials at the negotiating table whenever possible. Shame they can't fight out of their own respective countries and have a ref and 2 or 3 home country judges working all or almost all of their fights when facing foreign opposition, not that it would be a big advantage or anything
Kovalev comes across really badly in that, he really doesn't like training is the impression I get. Suicidal in boxing.
Kovalev needs to retire, highly doubt he can win the rematch anyway, and Alvarez has an advantage having knocked him out..
@deyell and where did you see that interview? It seems like it was compiled from several different interviews with Klimas.
