Former unified light heavyweight champion Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (36-5-1, 30 KOs) ended his 16-year pro career on a positive note, scoring a seventh-round technical knockout over Artur Mann (22-5, 13 KOs) on Friday night at the Yunost Arena in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Fighting in front of his hometown crowd, the 42-year-old Kovalev landed a beautiful left, right left combination to put Mann down on the canvas. After the Kazakhstan-born Mann got back to his feet, his corner opted to have the fight stopped. His legs were wobbling after he got back up, and it wouldn’t have been a good idea to allow it to continue.

MANN’S RESILIENCE

Earlier in the fight, Kovalev had knocked Mann down with a short left hook in the second round. Mann was badly hurt after he got back up, but weathered the storm after taking a barrage of heavy punches from Kovalev. In the final seconds of the round, Mann went down a second time, but the referee ruled it a slip. It looked like it could have been a legit knockdown.

In rounds three and four, Mann fought well, tagging Kovalev with short punches at times and making him expend energy. Mann suffered a cut over his right eye in the third round from getting hit with repeated stiff jabs from Sergey. ‘The Krusher’ looked visibly tired from the energy he’d expended in the second round.

Still, Mann couldn’t take advantage of his fatigue due to his low punch output. He was constantly coming forward but not throwing, and allowing Kovalev to land jabs and power punches at will. Mann had the power, but he wasn’t letting his shots go. Kovalev got his second wind in the sixth and increased his punch output considerably. He tagged Mann with a lot of punches in that round, and you could tell that the fight wasn’t going to last much longer if Artur didn’t start throwing something back.

RETIREMENT THOUGHTS?

This performance by Kovalev may give him second thoughts about retiring because he looked good in this fight compared to some of his recent ones. However, he didn’t have to worry about anything coming back at him because Mann was like a punching bag. The cruiserweight division is a weak one. So, there’s a possibility of Kovalev working himself into a title shot. His age could be an obstacle, because he can’t afford to spend years trying to get in position to battle for a world title. Also, the money wouldn’t be life-changing for Kovalev unless Turki Alalshikh took an interest in financing a fight between him and one of the champions.