By Gabriel F. Cordero
WBC President Mauricio Sulaimán has blasted former light heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev over his claims on social media that he was exhausted from previous fights making it impossible for him to win his November 2 fight with Canelo Alvarez and he only took the fight for the money.
“These are terrible, late and almost cowardly statements from a champion like Kovalev,” said Sulaiman. “Publicly expressing an excuse after being defeated by Canelo is not the correct form accepted in the sports world. It is not acceptable for him to give statements soiling our sport.
“His statements should bring him strong consequences. According to his statements, it is a fraud what he committed. He must accept that he was knocked out by a smaller boxer than him and is now looking belatedly to clean his image with unfounded doubts around boxing.
“They both had a good fight and these things don’t deserve to happen. Maybe Kovalev was not at his best (drunk) when he manifested his version of the fight. I view it as a great triumph of Canelo, an extraordinary achievement to overcome the strength, experience, height and weight advantages of Kovalev.
“Canelo is the number one in the world at the moment and that must be accepted. He is the center of attention and some find any situation to belittle or minimize him. The World Boxing Council is very proud of him.”
I’m surprised Sulaiman didn’t take the opportunity to create a new WBC Shit Excuse Belt.
The UFC has the BMF belt.
Call it the SAP belt. (Sorry Ass Punk).
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman like his father before him are both corrupt, always have been and always will be. No surprise here that Mauricio is offended by the truth. Bottom line is Oscar, Canelo, and Mauricio have the judges behind them at all times. FACT!
What the heck are you talking about?! Canelo knocked the out of Kov! No judges needed!
Your coment is full a shit Arturo always you talking trash
Sulaiman sounds very much like an offended father defending his “precious little boy” who can do no wrong. The head of a sanctioning body is supposed to be non-partisan.
Canelo knocked him out
Kovalev knew from the get-go what he was getting himself into by fighting Alvarez. We are not dumb there was a contract with legal representation to sign before the fight. Kovalev has ample time to “gauge” his body in how he felt before the contract was signed and during his training. Kovalev is a professional fighter so give me a break! Kovalev wanted one thing; money. Worn out or not, he knew a big fat paycheck was the motivator in the fight. Yes, Kovalev was cherry-picked to fight Alvarez since the Russian had some mileage on the body, battered to some degree, and was past his prime. That’s a no brainer. Kovalev is simply making excuses up so he can cover up the fact he was paid well, past his prime, and needed an excuse for sympathy!
So Kov had as much “mileage” on him as Bhop had on him when Kov became a star by defeating him? Was that a cherry pick? I mean I know Kov is in his 30’s but bhop was almost 50!
B-hop is a whole different animal very strict great professional.
One of the most intelligent boxers I’ve ever seen
He’s just telling the truth. He wasn’t ready to take that fight but money got him to do so, so he takes about it. Equally coward is Saul for targeting him, a vulnerable opponent, and not the best in the division. Why doesn’t the boxing god (Sulaiman) lash out on Saul for doing that?
i like ur argument… I think kovalev just telling the truth that chance of winning that fight is very minimal… but since money is good he took the fight…that’s a very honest statement… its the same thing as when many took the fight against Mayweather he didn’t tell us that his shoulder is injured, yet people succumb to the double prized ppv…
He admitted he took the fight for money and is just telling us what we already knew. He wants to have his cake and eat it too, so let them if he can get away with it.
Great post some people just don’t get it
Why complain when you are running a business not a sport. I think what Kov meant was he feels he didn’t have sufficient time off to rest and prepare after his grueling fight to properly prepare to be able to beat both the well rested Canelo and the judges. If you offered the largest sum of money in your career, why pass it up? If Canelo really wanted the true test he would have not pushed for the take it or leave it date, and removed any possible excuses, legit or not from Kov and the fight fan community. Stop complaining, you make your money off of the labors of others, who leave pieces of their lives, large, small and sometimes complete in the ring. There is nothing cowardly about stepping in the ring and competing as Kov did. There is no cowardice in believing that the deck was stacked against you, Kov was in that ring and earned the right to state his opinion/ belief.
Lol ,
When Sulaimán fights his next fight, he can say whatver he wants afterward tooo.
Btw, everyone knows kovalev did Not have enough time between fights
Everyone but kov
Maybe Sulaiman ordered him not to say that and Kovalev disobeyed orders. And now fat boy is “lashing out” at kovalev. And since kovalev made serous $$, maybe he said fuck it and spoke about it. So what if they won’t rank him anymore. He’s got a few milllion anyway.
I think the wbc and all the other alphabet belt organizations is what’s ruining the sport.
If you are going to fight Canelo….. You going to do it on his terms. That is the way it is. The Money dictates the rules. $12MM had a very strong appeal for Kovalev…. Kovalev didn’t have to take the fight…. But, He did for the money. They fought Canelo’s terms….. No surprise here. There is million champions in every weight class….. You want a title…. Fight one of those guys and win.
Well he did take the fight fairly too soon from his previous fight, and I’m sure the money is what motivated him to not refuse it. And he did have a hard fight previously. And that was fact. So perhaps equally cowardly is his princess for persuading an exhausted fighter with money because he know under those conditions he would be able to beat him. And shame on the WBC for sanctioning a fight where one of the fighters might’ve not been physically ready to fight. Wouldn’t this put that person at risk for serious permanent damage? Isn’t that what the WBC wants to protects fighters from with their bullshit programs? Yeah fat boy, you are so offended…
Jose Sulaiman felt he was a boxing god, and apparently his dipshit son does so too.
“Maybe Kovalev was not at his best (drunk) when he manifested his version of the fight”
With puerile comments like this do the WBC really expect to be taken seriously as a professional and respected organisation?
Total BULLSHIT. If the roles were reversed and it was Canelo making these statements then we all know that Mauricio would be sympathetic and tender hearted toward that red headed clown. Canelo is fake and so is the WBC and their fake ass President.
Quit sucking off canelo, geez. Kov was schooling canelo pretty much the whole fight before he got that ko. I barely had canelo winning two or three rds. So just stop. Even had kov finished the fight just as dominant as he was, oscar would have never gave him the victory!! To KO canelo is the only way to get a win against oscar….
This Mexican mobster is really showing his bias with this statement.
WOW!!! That’s about as partial as someone could be.. Now jose is running around policing comments of fighters for fighters he favors?!? UNREAL!
The fight was offered to Kovalev long before the Yarde fight. Who should be blamed for having taken the fight against Yarde? Is a 100% sure Yarde would have stepped aside and allowed Kovalev to face Canelo, because he would have been compensated with some money and the promise to face the winner or at least to be the mandatory in case the title were vacated. What I see in here is a monster miscalculation from Kovalev and his team that never expected the fight Yard put on. They totally underestimated Yarde and at the end, there was no choice, but to accept the Canelo fight, even though they knew the preparation for this fight it was going to be very poor.
IMO Kovalev and his team should be fined for their lack of professionalism and honesty.
the only ones that should feel insulted are the fans who expected a competitive fight and got this fiasco kovalev look like a shot fighter waiting to be knockout and sulaiman and the w.b.c.should be happy they got the big sanctioning fee and that’s the only thing they care about.
UMM what does Suliaman have to do with this fight to begin with? This was a WBO fight, so what is this reject from the WWE speaking about? 2nd Kovalev laid down, he beat Canela most of the rounds easily, but Delaho already put in the WWE outcome. The phony ref stopped the fight before Kov even hit the mat. 3rd, Canela has now become the most corrupt fighter that has ever come out of Mexico. Has Canela even won a fight in years without the fishnet fixing the results? BTW when Suliaman mentioned fraud, he should know about that very well, with his phony amount of belts and his required payments from the fighters, I’d like to know if the WBC has ever paid Rocchiani the money he was owed not to make the WBC go bankrupt. How about it Suliaman, have you made Rocchiani whole yet, or have you cheated him out of his hello? The WBC has become a lower version of the WWE.FRAUD MAURICIO ? Well you certainly have DEFINED that word.
I don’t know what went wrong in that fight but, I do have to agree that for the first time ever, a slugger like “The Krusher” relied too much on his jab and threw little, if any, power punches.. and just the given name “The Krusher” implies that this guy has mega power as we’ve seen him exhibit in all of his other fights especially in his fight against Hopkins… Kovy should demand a rematch OR BETTER YET, fight other top contenders and earn a rematch…that’s all and if he’s as good as he states he’ll get his belts back.. OR, there are other champions he could challenge but I don’t think he will….
Kovlev fought like a bitch too
So, everyone arguing this was a legit fight is saying Kovalev wasn’t way past his prime, just a couple months off a tough defense against a legit lt hvy, and already showing major signs of decline? He was defending champ and still the B side to a guy moving up to Challenge him.. GTFOH
Give Kovalev a rematch wherein both fighters (Canelo and Kovalev) are in good condition. Lets see who wins…
Fact still remains Kovalev had an extremely difficult fight which had to be physically demanding, I too back when the fight was made with Canelo, questioned the timing thinking it was too soon for Kovalev to get back in the ring. Not saying Canelo would not have won anyway with all things equal, but we all who follow the sport know after a very hard and difficult bout as Kovalev had with Anthony Yarde, it usually takes longer to recover from especially at his age. Most of us don’t like excuses, but that still does not change the fact it was a bit too soon to fight Canelo.
Cowardly ?! Probably; but it’s the true.. without that he would’ve beat Canelo..