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Kovalev still motivated, looking forward to bigger fights

Sergey Kovalev will be taking on Nadjib Mohammedi tomorrow night on HBO, while he continues to pursue other big fights.

Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Wil Esco is an assistant editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2014.

Sergey Kovalev is expected to trounce Nadjib Mohammedi on HBO tomorrow night, but that doesn't mean the man isn't still motivated to train hard. In fact, now that he's become a budding star in the sport there is a slightly different kind of pressure he's facing - the pressure of not only winning, but putting on crowd-pleasing performances in the process. For someone wielding the power that Kovalev has, that hasn't been much of an issue thus far. Yet even though Sergey is expected to get through tomorrows fight rather easily, he insists that he's not overlooking his opponent in the slightest.

"Any boxing fight to me is like a street fight because you don't know what can happen," said Kovalev. "Every fighter is dangerous and I train to get better every single day."

Even still, despite focusing on the task in front of him, Sergey and his promoter Kathy Duva are still keeping an eye towards the future where they hope big fights await him. One of those big fights would be against fellow light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. That fight has been talked about quite a bit over the last year-plus, but despite there being differences in promoters, networks, and whatnot, Sergey still believes it's Stevenson himself who is avoiding the fight.

"I'm ready to fight Stevenson but he doesn't want to fight me," the WBA, IBF and WBO light heavyweight champion explained. "I want to give the fans a fight who have waited for a long time (but) Stevenson is a piece of s—t."

Well - I certainly can't say that's a new one from Sergey, who very clearly has a personal disdain for Stevenson. Whether or not that fight ever comes together is anyone's guess, but Duva is still pursuing other high profile options for Kovalev in the meanwhile - namely Andre Ward.

"We've been talking to Ward's people all week," Duva said. "We all agree that the fight will happen and it's just a matter of when. We have his career mapped out for the next three years and Sergey has made it clear that he wants to fight the best boxing has to offer."

Tell me fans, which fight would you rather see - Kovalev-Ward or Kovalev-Stevenson?

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