By Bill Kozloff

John David Jackson, the trainer of WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (22-0-1, 20KOs), believes his fighter will score a knockout within six rounds over upcoming opponent Ismayl Sillakh (21-1, 17KOs). Their fight is scheduled to take place on November 30th at the Pepsi Coliseum in Quebec, Canada. HBO will be televising the contest. Kovalv returns for the first time since his bruising knockout victory over previously undefeated Nathan Cleverly.

"We do not expect an easy fight. We are taking [Sillakh] very seriously. This guy definitely knows how to box and he does it very well. Sillakh will certainly not try to trade with Sergey, he will box. I think Sergey will use combinations [to eventually break him down] and then knock him out. We know that Sillakh has been knocked out and we that Sergey hits very, very hard. Sergey is the aggressor in this fight, and most likely he will knock Sillakh out in the sixth round. Of course, it may very well be that Sergey knocks him out before that, but I think about the fifth or sixth round [Sillakh] will be knocked out," Jackson said.

Bill Kozloff covers boxing for Allboxing.ru.