TUESDAY 20 AUGUST 2019

Kovalev’s desperate exodus and

glorious homecoming

Sergey Kovalev faces Britain’s Anthony Yarde for the WBO world title (Getty)

STEVE BUNCE

IN CHELYABINSK, RUSSIA

On Saturday in Chelyabinsk, a lost industrial city three hours by air east of Moscow, in a giant hall
dedicated to the proletariat Roller (the tractor), Russia’s greatest fighting hero returns home to defend his
world title against an unbeaten boxer from Bow, east London.

Sergey Kovalev was a poor kid from the foothills of the Ural mountains. His face never fit in the Russian
amateur boxing system and frustrated, rejected – but still ambitious – he left for America to fight for a
living. He never had a global amateur gold medal or deep financial backing: the type of start so many former

Sport /Boxing