According to columnist Michael Kopinje, the famous heavy gunner Sergei Kovalev is about to return to boxing, he will appear in Los Angeles, California on March 12, against China's Meng Fanlong, the match will be broadcast live by Triller, the two boxers will be at 185 pounds to fight against each other.
For Chinese boxing fans and Kovalev fans, this is a very much worth looking forward to, we need to see if Meng Fanlong can shake Kovalev? Also see how Kovalev is after 27 months away from the field.
Kovalev's last match was in November 2019, when he was KO by Mexican star Canello Avarez and has not appeared on stage since.
Kovalev's performance against Avarez was disappointing, it seemed like a waste of time, he did not kill Avarez, and was eventually knocked down, but he received a high appearance fee of up to $8 million, which can be described as painful and happy.
After losing to Avarez, Kovalev has announced his comeback twice, against Cuban boxer Sullivan Barrera and Uzbekistan rookie Bekitmer Melikuzyev, but for various reasons failed to take shape, if it were not for the announcement of the battle with Meng Fanlong, the outside world would have almost forgotten Kovalev.
Kovalev is now 38 years old and Meng Fanlong is 33 years old, and in terms of age, Kovalev is at a disadvantage, and because he has not played on stage for a long time, his state is certainly not as good as Meng Fanlong. Meng Fanlong is a left-handed man with a professional record of 17 wins and 10 KO opponents, and Kovalev must find an effective way to crack Meng Fanlong.
Meng Fanlong originally planned to fight against The Russian star Artur Beitbiyev as an IBF legal challenger in 2020, but unfortunately due to the cancellation of the competition due to the impact of the "pandemic", Meng Fanlong was in a state of idleness throughout 2020, which is a huge ordeal for an athlete. In October last year, Meng Fanlong made a comeback in boxing, beating Israel Davs, who is ranked 59th in the world overall rankings.
Probably due to the low density of competitions in the past two years, Meng Fanlong, who was originally a legal challenger of the IBF, has not been able to enter the top 15 in the IBF rankings, and among the other three major boxing organizations, Meng Fanlong only ranks 8th in WBC, and WBA and WBO also fail to enter the top 15 places.
As early as 2020, Kovalev expressed the idea of being promoted to the sub-heavyweight class, which is capped at 200 pounds, and now Kovalev is fighting Meng Fanlong at 185 pounds, probably trying to find the feeling first, and if he wins, then consider a new plan.
Before 2016, Kovalev was the first person in the 175-pound light heavyweight class, when he had three gold belts in the WBA, IBF and WBO, but after losing to Andy Ward in a row, Kovalev fell into the trough of his career, but fortunately regained the world championship until losing to Avirez in 2019.
The same as the peak period, Kovalev vs Meng Fanlong battle is not much suspense, Meng Fanlong unless he creates a miracle, it is difficult to defeat Kovalev, but now the situation is different, Kovalev has long passed the peak period, and as he grows older, his speed, physical fitness, ability to resist blows plummeted, which is a huge opportunity for Meng Fanlong, if he can defeat Kovalev, it will open a new chapter in Chinese professional boxing, I wish Meng Fanlong good luck.