Sergey Kovalev to fight Nadjib Mohammedi on July 18

IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs) will be defending his titles against mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi (37-3, 23 KOs) on July 18 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Kovalev, 32,  who has looked unstoppable in his last two fights, a one-sided points win over Bernard Hopkins and then stopping Jean Pascal, was hoping to face WBC 175 pound champion Adonis Stevenson next. But due to them fighting on rival television networks, Stevenson on Showtime and Kovalev on HBO, that doesn’t seem like it will happen anytime soon. So Mohammedi gets his chance against the Russian puncher.

The Frenchman has been in the mandatory position since he stopped Anatoliy Dudchenko in an IBF eliminator last June, but then champion Hopkins opted to fight Kovalev instead, with Mohammedi stepping aside to face the winner.

The 30-year-old challenger is on a 13-fight winning streak, stopping his last four opponents, but he has been beaten every time he has stepped up a level.

In 2010, Mohammedi lost on points to Nathan Cleverly and, in 2011, he was stopped in the second round by Dmitry Sukhotsky.

So he does not really shape up as any sort of actual threat against a fighter with so much size and power, and Kovalev looks set to claim yet another KO.