In a fight that aired in its entirety Monday night on HBO Championship Boxing, Sergey Kovalev retained his WBA Super, WBO and IBF world light-heavyweight titles with a workmanlike points victory over Malawi’s boxer Isaac Chilemba.
Isaac Chilemba frustrated his man with his subtle movement and long but pacy jabs. He discourages the Sergey Kovalev with technical skills and showed the blue print to American Andre Ward on how to beat him.
Chilemba was regarded as little more than a warm-up for the fight with Ward in Las Vegas on November 19, but admitted pre-fight he was angry at being “disrespected” and that showed in an intelligent display which made the big-hitting champion look labored
indeed, no one enjoyed Monday’s fight more than Ward. Chilemba did him a huge favor by handing him a blueprint for success against Kovalev. Chilemba worked with jabs all night, sneaking in body shots when he had the opportunity. They were enough to keep Kovalev off him much of the night. When they weren’t, he clenched and defused any attack.
The official scores were 118-109, 117-110 and 116-111 in favor of the unified champion, however the bout was a lot more competitive than what was expected.
In an Interview Chilemba touted his Malawi roots even though he resides in South Africa.