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Sergey Kovalev Doubles Down on Bigotry with Racist Tweet

by 11 Comments

When Sergey Kovalev lost his Light Heavyweight titles to Andre Ward last Fall, it has seemingly sent him into a furious spiral where he has been barely able to contain himself, and the hatred and ugliness churning inside him is quickly finding its way out.

Kovalev has been adamant of being jobbed by the American judges at ringside despite the fact that he’s fought almost his entire career in the US and grew increasingly impatient that their contractually obligated rematch was stuck in the mud as Roc Nation Sports (who promotes Ward) and Main Events tried to hash out details before announcing the fight scheduled for June 17.

Frustrated as he is, Kovalev has more often referred to Ward as “Motherfucker” than anything else and last week, decided to take it a step further by referring to Ward as a “hoe ass nigga” and “faggot” in a since deleted meme which you can see here courtesy of BlackSportsOnline’s Jeandra LeBeauf.

This is the latest of an unfortunate series of incidents where Kovalev has painted himself in a negative light, and it can only be a mistake so many times.

Dating back to 2014, Kovalev has made several demeaning comments towards African Americans when he called conquered foe Ismayel Sillakh a “negro,” said that Clarissa Shields should stay at home despite being a Gold Medal Olympian and likening rival Adonis Stevenson to a monkey.

Kovalev may not be fluent in English, but the man doesn’t commute from Russia and the last time I checked, neither does Kathy Duva and Main Events. So besides the obvious that Kovalev has all but established himself a racist, why the outburst now?

When he seems to be his most perturbed, Kovalev does seem to go off the rails a little bit to cause a PR nightmare that, until now, could be dismissed as not understanding the language. The Stevenson comment came due to numerous negotiations failing and Ward took not only his undefeated record, but his titles and maybe a bit of his confidence as well.

There’s no gamesmanship here. It is as blatant and xenophobic as Manny Pacquiao’s continually offensive remarks towards homosexuals, which didn’t fly under the radar at all and caused a huge uproar. As the Kovalev situation gets swept under the rug again, who knows if that’s any guarantee that we won’t see it again in the days leading to the rematch with Ward.

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Danny Howard
Managing Editor at The Boxing Tribune
Danny Howard has been all over the place, writing for FightHype, the Yahoo Contributor Network and the Examiner. His works are also featured as part of the team at The Fight City. He also became a legend in his own mind by writing “And Stay Down! Boxing’s Worst Comebacks.” Howard can be found on Facebook and Twitter and can be reached by email at daniel.howard6@att.net

Comments

  2. stop crying, he said what he wanted..no different then Floyd and his anti gay and racist rhetoric.. This is boxing not its meant for you snowflakes. enjoy the fight and everything that leads to it.

    Reply

    • @stop crying.

      dickhead response, dude.
      Aren’t you the “snowflake” who was bitching like a little girl over Mayweather’s remarks? Now you are all cuddled up and cozy with the Russian thug? Roll over and play dead, fool.

      Reply

  4. Did the writer bother to even fact check?
    Kovalev wasn’t the author, he retweeted it.
    If you read it you’d see it’s supposed to be Ward
    at first saying how he really feels and then erasing it and writing something that’s PC and in keeping with Ward’s image..
    Kovalev may be a racist but this tweet doesn’t prove it. Fake news!

    Reply

  5. I’ve covered Andre Ward’s fights since 2009. Read my article in the SF Bayview News: Ward v Kovalev: Was this the “great white hope” remix? http://sfbayview.com/2016/12/ward-vs-kovalev-was-this-the-great-white-hope-re-mix/

    Kovalev’s racism is not a joke. I’ve seen the behavior patterns continually. As an Afrikan woman and photojournalist, I have the photographs to prove that Kovalev’s lack of boxing capability was no match for Andre Ward’s class and strength in the ring. This re-match will be like the Max Schmelling-Joe Louis fight…

    Why the boxing world keeps giving Kovalev a free pass to behave the way he does is continually fascinating to me. It is definitely not going to improve his boxing. And Mr. Ward’s response has been, “I’ll see you in the ring.” Andre Ward “class” vs Sergei Kovalev’s “crass”

    Reply

    • “….Was this the “great white hope” remix? ..”

      Rubbish pure rubbish. Oleksandr Usyk, Dmitry Bivol, Luca Browne,……
      It was Kovalev’s racist tweet and Kovalev’s alone. Stop with the blanket indictment by conflating Max Schmelling/Louis with present state of boxing.
      Boxing has never been more diverse with a multitude of nationalities.

      Reply

  6. Kovalev is a bigot and a racist. He needs to learn english better before talking shit. Calling a black man a “Hoe ass nigga” will get you toe tagged no matter the race. Kovalev must think he is Ivan Drago. He should be more like GGG who doesnt talk trash.

    Reply

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