Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Sergey Kovalev met with local media and members of the Russian community in Las Vegas at the Green Dacha Grill on Tuesday. THE RING’s No. 1-rated light heavyweight also engaged in an arm wrestling demonstration with fellow Russian Kirill Yakovlev, a World Armwrestling Championship staff member, and posed for photos with fans.

Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs), the WBO, WBA and IBF titleholder, will compete in his first mandatory title defense against Nadjib Mohammedi (37-3, 23 KOs) on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. HBO will televise the fight and a co-feature between former RING champ Jean Pascal (29-3-1, 17 KOs) and Yunieski Gonzalez (16-0, 12 KOs).

The HBO World Championship Boxing telecast begins at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.