Sergey Kovalev has assault trial postponed

Former light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev won’t be seeing his assault trial begin just yet as he faces up to four years in prison. During a pre-trial hearing that took place on Monday, where the judge was supposed to set a trial date, the judge instead set another pre-trial hearing for April 8th with no trial date to be seen. ESPN reports that it’s likely that this postponed was due to Kovalev recently changing attorneys.

Kovalev had been arrested on June 9, 2018 after he was accused of physically assaulting a woman in Big Bear Lake, CA. The woman was said to have been punched in the face, breaking her nose and giving her a concussion, as well as suffering displaced disk in her neck. The assault allegedly took place after Kovalev followed the woman back to her cabin when she had rejected sexual advances from the fighter.

After his arrest Kovalev posted his $50,000 bond to get released, albeit formally charged with assault likely to cause great bodily harm.

In the time since the arrest Kovalev has fought four times, splitting two fights with Eleider Alvarez, stopping Anthony Yarde, and then getting predictably stopped by Canelo Alvarez to lose his WBO light heavyweight title. Kovalev would later post a video online admitting that the Canelo fight was simply a cash grab, saying of course he lost because he accepted the fight on short notice.