Los Angeles, May 11, 2022 — Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev (34-4, 29 KOs), living in Long Beach, CA, will fight Tervel Pulev in his cruiserweight debut on Saturday, May 14 at The Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA and will be streamed live on Triller and Fite.tv.

Tickets, starting at $31.00, are on sale and may be purchased through TrillerFightClub.com, TheLAForum.com, and Ticketmaster.com at http://www.ticketmaster.com/trillerverz5

The Krusher says “My motivation to keep going? First is money (laughing) and money is energy. Second is my son. I want to become world champion once again so he can see that ‘don’t ever give up.’ Right now, it is all for my kids. I tell them and show them to follow your dreams and your dreams will come true. If I ended my boxing career right now, I would feel uncomfortable for the rest of my life.

“Since I lost my title to Canelo, I am not on the top. Since I changed to cruiserweight it has changed everything, most importantly I don’t have to worry about losing the weight. Actually, the last two years fighting at light heavyweight, and making 175, was miserable for me.”

2019 “was a crazy year” for Kovalev. In February, Sergey won back the title from Eleider Alvarez. Then the WBO ordered a mandatory defense against Anthony Yarde that was first scheduled June in Russia. He arrived in Russia one month before the fight and “was right on weight at 182.” The fight was soon cancelled the first week of June and rescheduled for August 24 “so I went back home to US and during those three weeks we celebrated my wife’s birthday and all the sudden I got back to 200 pounds,” which is his regular walk-around weight. Training camp for the new date began June 20 and on July 20 he returned to Russia. “The day after the Yarde win, I got the offer to fight Canelo, and two weeks later returned to training camp. Some fighters fight for their legacy, I fight to fight. I have never turned down a fight.

“The night of the Canelo fight, we are at the door to begin the ring walk and a fella with a headset came to us and said, ‘we are not ready, we have to wait for the other fights (the UFC card) to finish.’ We waited for another hour. An hour! I went to the corner after round seven and I said to Buddy ,”Buddy, I am spent, totally,” and he said “I see.”

“Now I feel fresh. Making 175 was killing me. I was at the point either quit or move up in weight. Now I can eat everything at any time.”

“This is a new step in my boxing career. I plan to fight a couple more years. No more than three years. I am not sure how many fights it will take to get a title. But if I win a title next year – then I will stop. How long will it take to get a title shot? It could be a two or three year wait, but we will see. I can fight into my 40’s no problem. I just had two years off. I am fresh.”

But on the other hand, after May 14, if Jake Paul wants to fight, I will be ready, and I will knock him out.”

Sergey is being trained by Buddy McGirt and his strength and conditioning coach is Teddy Cruz. They are the duo that reinvented Arturo Gatti.

Los Angeles, May 2, 2022 — Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev (34-4, 29 KOs), living in Long Beach, CA, will fight Tervel Pulev in his cruiserweight debut on Saturday, May 14 at The Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA and will be streamed live on Triller and Fite.tv.

Tickets, starting at $37.00, are on sale and may be purchased through TrillerFightClub.com, TheKiaForum.com, and www.Ticketmaster.com/Trillerverz5

Sergey is being trained by Buddy McGirt and his strength and conditioning coach is Teddy Cruz. They are the duo that reinvented Arturo Gatti.

“Buddy was a real smart boxer and a real smart trainer and coach. Sometimes a good boxer can’t be a good coach and sometimes a coach wasn’t a good boxer. But Buddy has it both ways – good boxer and good coach. He does what he needs to do to get me prepared the best for the fight. Buddy gives me tactics and sound techniques and strategy. Together we are working towards getting another world title, this time in the cruiserweight division and become champion for the fourth time.”

For this eight-week training camp Sergey is staying in a hotel in close to the park where he runs and his boxing gym is a twenty minutes away in Van Nuys. “The most difficult part of my career right now is being away from my family,” said Kovalev. “Ten years ago it was just me, now I have a wife and two kids. To be away from them for two months is tough.”

Kovalev hits the boxing gym at 5 pm daily. He spars three days a week and is off on Sunday.

An evening sparring would last about 1.5 hours and go as such: (1) Jump rope 4 rounds (2) Shadow box 4 rounds (3) Spar 7 rounds (4) Neck exercises.

A non-sparring evening workout would be technical training and some game plan.

The Krusher arrives at the fitness gym early morning – every day except for Sunday – with strength and conditioning coach/extraordinaire Teddy Cruz. They will do a workout depending on how much boxing workout he does the evening prior.

The morning after a sparring day would be a low intensity 45-minute session and include: (1) Warm up stretch for 5-10 minutes (2) Squats combined with shoulder presses – 20 reps with 25 lb. dumbbells (3) Step lunges with torso twisting with 10 lbs. medicine ball for 20 reps, (4) Static lunges with curls for 20 reps with 25lbs dumbbells (5) Abs for 600 reps

The morning after light boxing training would be a more intense workout such as: sprints for the legs and punching sprints for the arms, “or he can go run 5 miles.”

This will be Kovalev’s first fight since November 2, 2019. “When you don’t fight for a long time you lose boxing skills. On the other hand the time off has helped me rest and get rid of all of my injuries – it’s like a renewal.

“My first two weeks of sparring I couldn’t touch my opponent (laughing) mostly because I was heavy, about 210 lbs. But then by week three, I had lost some weight and my boxing skills came back. By May 14, I will be at 187 pounds and there will be no rust.

“I don’t really study my opponents. I will watch one or two rounds from his last couple of fights so I can see what style he likes – does he like to fight inside or from a distance then I can prepare. I just can’t wait to get inside the ring and show the world who is the best cruiserweight on the planet.

Kovalev was initially preparing to fight Fanlong Meng but then “Egis (Klimas, manager) called me and said, “you have a new opponent – it is Pulev.” I said “Pulev? He is a heavyweight,” and Egis said “no, he has a brother that is a cruiserweight,” so I said “OK, Let’s go.”

“The only difference in the opponent change to me is we were initially training for a southpaw, now we are training for a rightpaw.”

For a moment it looked like Kubrat Pulev’s title shot was in jeopardy.

The Bulgarian heavyweight, who is ranked number-one by the IBF was cut badly by a Bogdan Dinu right hand in the 4th round of their heavyweight bout at The Hanger in Costa Mesa, California.

Pulev was able to shake it off, drop Dinu three times and stop him at 2:42 of round seven.

In round four, Dinu landed a big right hand that opened up a nasty cut over the left eye of Pulev.

Pulev was able to gather himself and score three knockdowns in the 7th. The 1st from a combination in the corner, where he almost got himself disqualified for hitting Dinu behind the head and while he was down. Pulev was deducted a point from that. Pulev scored two more knockdowns, both from big rights and the fight was stopped.

Pulev, 249.8 lbs of Sofia, BUL is 27-1 with 14 knockouts. Dinu, 239.6 lbs of Bucharest, ROM is 18-2.

“This is just part of being in a fight. The cut was not such a big problem. Sometimes blood makes me very hungry”, said Pulev. “I was very well prepared. I was ready for anything. At this moment I feel I can do anything inside the ring. I showed very good boxing skills. I also showed that I have good punching power and a good strategy”.

Jessie Magdaleno won a 10-round unanimous decision over Rico Ramos in a featherweight bout featuring former world champions.

Magdaleno, 125.6 lbs of Las Vegas won by scores of 99-91, 98-92 and 97-93 and is now 26-1. Ramos, 127.2 lbs of Pico Rivera, CA is 30-6.

Magdaleno outanded Ramos 130-43.

“I came back from a long layoff and felt great against a tough opponent and a former world champion”, said Magdaleno. “Ramos is a great fighter, he was a former world champion for a reason, but tonight only one of us could come out victorious, and that was me. Now I’m going to sit down with my team, go back to the drawing board, and see what I have to keep working on to become a world champion once again”.

Maxim Dadashev got off the deck and came back to stop Ricky Sismundo in round four of their scheduled ten-round junior welterweight bout.

In round two, Sismundo dropped Dadashev with a straight left. In round four, Dadashev landed a clipping left hook that was followed by a right that Sismundo down on his back. That was stopped at 2:30.

Dadashev, 140 1/2 lbs of Oxnard, CA is 13-0 with 11 knockouts. Sismundo, 141 lbs of The Philippines is 35-13-3.

Tervel Pulev won a six-round unanimous decision over Mitch Williams in a cruiserweight bout.

In round three, Pulev was cut under his left eye. In round four, Pulev was docked a point for hitting on the break.

Pulev of Bulgaria won by scores of 59-55, 58-55 and 57-56 to stay undefeated at 13-0. Williams is now 16-8-3.

2008 U.S. Olympian Javier Molina won an eight-round unanimous decision over Abdiel Ramirez in a junior welterweight bout.

Molina, 140 1/2 lbs of Norwalk, CA won by scores of 79-73 and 78-74 twice and is now 19-2. Ramirez, 141 lbs of Ciudad Juarez, MX is 24-4-1.

Chris Van Heerden won a technical unanimous decision over Mahonri Montes when an accidental headbutt that opened up a cut over the right eye of Van Heerden that forced the fight to be halted.

Van Heerden dominated the action from the inside and outside. In round six, he was cut over his left eye. When they went to the score cards, Van Heerden was ahead 60-54 on all scores.

Van Heerden, 148 1/2 lbs of Johannesburg, SA is 27-2-1. Montes, 148 1/2 lbs of Los Mochis, MX is 35-9-1.

Erick DeLeon remained undefeated by stopping Jose Luis Gallegos in round six of their scheduled eight-round junior lightweight bout.

DeLeon dominated the first four rounds by landing hard body shots that started to break Gallegos down. Gallegos dropped DeLeon in round five with a hard right hand off the ropes. That was short lived as DeLeon regrouped very nicely and started attacking Gallegos and began to hurt him with a flurry of punches that forced the referee to stop the fight at 1:35 of round six.

DeLeon, 131 1/2 lbs of Detroit is now 19-0-1 with 11 knockouts. Gallegos, 131 1/2 lbs of La Barca. MX is 16-6.

David Kaminsky remained undefeated with a four-round unanimous decision over Estevan Payan in a middleweight bout.

Kaminsky, 160 lbs of Los Angeles won by scores of 40-36 on all cards, and is now 4-0. Payan, 159 1/2 lbs of Glendale, AZ is 1-7-1.