Sergey Kovalev vs. Vyacheslav "Slava" Shabranskyy will box each other for the vacant WBO light heavyweight title vacated by Andre Ward. The event will take place on Nov. 25th at the Theater at Madison Square ...
Promoter Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions: Let me give you a little background on Slava. He made his professional debut back in 2012. He had 17 straight victories, 14 KOs. The only blemish on his record was a hard-fought fight against Sullivan Barrera, but he's bounced back since and he's had a couple of great wins... This is his chance at stardom. If he can beat a guy like Sergey Kovalev, he's going to be considered probably one of the top light heavyweights in the world.
- Slava, this is obviously such a big opportunity for you. Do you think that Sergey's style of always coming forward and your style of classic boxing, does his style play perfectly into yours?
- I think we have a different style. It will be a more interesting fight because my style is a background Ukrainian amateur, plus Mexican here. So, I know what Kovalev's style is like. I know his Russian background is strong and now he's here. I think it will be interesting fight there for everybody.
- Are you afraid of his power at all?
- No, I'm not scared of nobody. Hey, bro, I have a wife and two kids. I'm scared of nobody. [Laughs]
- I asked Sergey if he did anything differently in this training camp since the Andre Ward losses as far as from a tactical standpoint. It seemed like he was having some trouble with the inside fighting. I know you said you have your amateur background and you also mentioned you like to apply Mexican style. Is that something that we can look forward to as far as your game plan? Can we look forward to the two of you banging on the inside, because it seemed as though there still might be some questions out there for Sergey as far as taking it to the body and then also the inside fighting.
- You never know how a fight is coming, but I believe it'll be like good fight. I'll bring everything what I know from Ukraine here but don't want to give away too much, yeah.
- Vyacheslav, do you feel that you are coming in at a better moment than Sergey Kovalev after two victories?
- Everything will be in the ring, so, we will see our situation in the ring. Both guys are coming into this ring bringing everything that they have on the line and, just because I have two consecutive wins after unfortunate loss, doesn't mean anything. So, both guys are probably in the same position as of now.
- Vyacheslav, I was just wondering what you thought of the Kovalev-Ward fights [won by Ward, the first one controversially], the second fight in particular. Do you see vulnerabilities in Kovalev that maybe you hadn't seen before?
- Ward did his homework, A+. I am prepared to see Kovalev in a different light for this fight because I am 100% sure that I learned a great lesson from what happened to him.
- What lessons did he learn from that fight?
- Ward made necessary adjustments. I am going to do my homework for this one. I am sure I am prepared for anything.
- Do you feel that Kovalev is maybe more vulnerable now than he was before, now that he's been stopped in a fight and has lost? A lot of people thought he won the first fight, but now that he's lost two fights in a row?
- He's actually much more dangerous after a loss, because he has everything to look forward to in this fight.
- How do you view this opportunity for himself, being that he was stopped by Barrera in the big fight last December? How do you view this fight for himself in terms of making himself a world champion and thrusting himself into huge fights in the light heavyweight division?
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- Up to this point every single fight, I treat it like a championship fight. And for this fight, I had no idea the belt would be on the line. And now that the belt is on the line, I am blessed to have this opportunity.