By Carlos Boogs

Egis Klimas, manager of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs), sent a warning to Andre Ward and his handlers.

Last November at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) got off the floor in the second round to box his way to a twelve round unanimous decision over Kovalev. All three judges scored it 114-113.

Their highly anticipated rematch is scheduled for Saturday, June 17 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The championship event will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. 

During the media tour for the rematch, Ward, his manager James Price, and promoter Michael Yormark of Roc Nation, have promised a dominant victory over Kovalev in June. They believe Kovalev was completely figured out last fall, and this time around the fight will be a one-sided victory in Ward's favor.

“Talking is very, very cheap. Trust me, I’ve been in this business for a while, and I’ve seen it many times. Managers, trainers, promoters coming in and talking a lot of sh*t into the microphone. But then it comes to the night, these are the two men that are going to go in the ring, and they’re going to fight. Nothing to do with the promotion, nothing to do with the manager, nothing to do with the trainers. Trainers might be giving them the advice, but these two guys are going to survive," Klimas said.

“You can’t lie to the people’s eyes with what they saw on November 19. I’m not going to talk about it. I’m not going to go there because it’s already history. Forget about it. I want everybody to see who’s going to be coming to Vegas on June 17, what is going to happen. I want to thank as always the media because without you guys nobody will know what happened here.”