The Las Vegas boxing odds favor Sergey Alexandrovich ‘Krusher’ Kovalev to beat Vyacheslav ‘Lion Heart’ Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO and IBA light heavyweight titles at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York on November 25th. For Shabranskyy, however, not just championships but his entire career will be on the line. “This is a very big event. Fighting for a world title – it’s all or nothing,” the Ukrainian said. “Right now, I’m not thinking about [Kovalev]. I’m not thinking about what he has done or what he is doing. I’ll see him on November 25, and then after the fight, I’ll tell you about him. I was so excited when I found out this bout would be for a world title. I had accepted the fight before knowing it would be for a world title.”
#kovalevshabranskyy #ковалёвшабранский #krusher #kovalboxer #kovalev #teamkrusher #teamkovalev #sergeykovalev #shopkrusher #крашер #Ковалев pic.twitter.com/JlTt7eyN87
— Sergey Kovalev (@KrusherKovalev) October 26, 2017
Sportsbook online Vegas betting lines boxing:
Vyacheslav Sharbranskyy +850
Sergey Kovalev -1300
As for Kovalev, this will be his 33rd professional fight, but in a way, it will also be his first. Flying high on an undefeated 30–0–1 record, Krusher had gone from a tough Russian street kid to a real-life version of Damon Wayans’s character from The Great White Hype with a dash of Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper for good measure – a hard-drinking, hard-partying , out-of-shape crackpot who believed water was fattening. It was all good, though, as long as he kept winning, but then came along the Son of God – not JC, but Andre ‘S.O.G’ Ward, an Olympic gold medalist and WBA (Undisputed), IBF, and WBO light heavyweight champion with an undefeated record. Ward beat Krusher back-to-back, and though neither bout was devoid of controversy, S.O.G would ultimately ride into the sunset as the better boxer.
So how come the Las Vegas boxing odds favor Kovalev. In the words of the late, great Thin White Duke, “Ch-ch-changes/Just gonna have to be a different man.” For starters, he replaced longtime trainer John David Jackson with Abror Tursunpulatov. More importantly, he experienced a Jules Winfield moment when his 1996 Mercedes S-Class veered off a country road and into a birch forest at about 87 mp, and skidded for 100 meters before it stopped without touching a single tree. Or so he says. The point is, he felt the touch of God. God got involved. So he decided to walk the Earth, you know, like Caine in Kung Fu: walk from place to place, meet people, get into adventures, until God put him where he wanted Kovalev to be. And that was Metamórfosis on the Halkidiki Peninsula in northeastern Greece, specifically Mount Athos, known as the Holy Mountain, where 2,000 monks live in something like 20 Orthodox Christian monasteries.
Long story short, that’s where Kovalev became “a changed man.” “I felt my mind more clear,” he explained. “I don’t to drink anymore alcohol or smoke cigarettes. Just cleaning up my body, cleaning up my spirit, cleaning up everything. Right now, I am clean 100%. I want to write a new story,” he says. “I want my belts back. I must prove that I deserve it.” and he must prove the Las Vegas boxing odds correct as well.