Hunter offers to train Kovalev, says he can turn him into devastating body puncher

Virgil Hunter says that Sergey Kovalev would respect him and thrive in his gym.

Well, their second fight is over so whatever gamesmanship between the Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev camps should’ve died down by now. But in this interview with FightHype, Ward’s trainer Virgil Hunter says that if Kovalev needs a trainer going forward, he won’t have to look very far...

“...I would tell Kovalev, uh, If [John David] Jackson and everybody’s gone, come on down with us! I’m sure he’ll have a lot of fun and I believe at this stage that I could teach him how to be a devastating body puncher...and also, he’ll respect me!

“...I’m not soliciting him, don’t get me wrong, I’m just saying that if all else fails — what I’m trying to do is give you an indication about how we feel about the whole situation. We don’t dislike nobody, we don’t harbor any ill feelings towards anyone, and, you know, I think we have an environment that if he had no other choice, he’d thrive in. So it’s not a solicitation, it’s like if all else fails, you know, we have the compassion and love for you in the rest of your career. That’s all.”

Hunter on if he thinks he’d be able to keep Kovalev under control when other trainer’s haven’t been able to:

“Well how can you disrespect a man that beat you?! You don’t gotta like me, but you gotta respect it. How can you disrespect a man that saw your weaknesses?! Everybody else looked at your strengths, but I looked at your weaknesses.

“But, you know, again, I want to reiterate that this is not some kind of solicitation move - it’s not that at all. It’s just that, hey, the man is out there all by himself pretty much...But if he goes to a Russian coach, and that’s no slight on ‘em, they’re not gonna be able to help him for his flaws. And once a fighter sees that, the saying is ‘once you see the sawdust the mill is not far away.’

“So if we knew how to get to his body, we know how to teach him to protect it.”