Sergey Kovalev: On June 17 I will be prepared to get my belts back

Photo Credit: Roc Nation Sports/Khristopher Sandifer

Andre Ward
You are a family man and a very private person. How does that help you to prepare for a fight? Do you go away from your family to train? How do you deal with the distance and being away from family?

“I’ve been going away for training camp since 2002. It’s a concept that Virgil [Hunter] brought to me way back then. At the time, I didn’t understand what it was about. We had two young children. If I was working hard why did I need to be isolated? Virgil explained to me that every little thing outside of the ring pulls away from your energy inside it. Today, I can see why it’s a benefit. It gets me in the right frame of mind for what I’m trying to accomplish. It prepares me to go to war.”

Sergey Kovalev
What would you do different in the second fight? Do you think you need to make changes and what are they? You dropped Ward in Round 2 but couldn’t finish him. Does that play in your head?

“Nothing plays in my head except that this time I will be the winner at the end of the fight. You saw the first half of the last fight, I won those rounds easy. In the later rounds I was very tired, I ran out of gas. For this fight I am training correctly. Last time I trained too hard. This camp I will do everything that I usually do when I train but I will not do it as much. I am training very smart this time. My training camps are usually very successful, as well as my fights. I went back to what has worked for me in the past. On June 17 I will be prepared to get my belts back.”

Ward vs. Kovalev 2 takes place Saturday, June 17 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.

Watch “24/7 Ward/Kovalev 2” Full Show: