John David Jackson trashes Sergey Kovalev: ‘He’s a nasty person’

Over at The Ring, Joseph Santoloquito talked with John David Jackson, Sergey Kovalev’s former trainer, and Jackson really let loose on Kovalev’s training habits (or lack thereof), Sergey’s recent loss to Eleider Alvarez, and who Kovalev is as a person.

You really want to read the whole thing, so seriously, click on this link and read the full article. Here’s just a bit of it:

“I wasn’t happy when I heard he got stopped. But I will say he got what he deserved. Without proper training, he got his ass whipped. There was no shock at all there; the handwriting was on the wall. ... Sergey is a borderline racist. He shows it in certain ways. I defended his ass more than a few times. Sergey didn’t want either me or Don Turner to work with him. He is good at putting the persona on, but when he’s alone, he’s a raw, nasty person. Even his own people talk about him like a dog behind his back, I kid you not. His so-called friends couldn’t stand him.”

It’s hardly the first time anyone has questioned Kovalev’s character, but Jackson really lets things fly in this interview. Maybe some of it is sour grapes. Maybe it was just a professional relationship that didn’t work out. Maybe it’s a lot more than that. But Jackson is holding nothing back here.

As for Kovalev right now, he says he’s going to come back and become champion again. At 35, it’s going to be a tall task, but we’ll see where he goes from here.