Photo: Naoki Fukuda

When Sergey Kovalev returns to Russia to defend his light heavyweight titles against Isaac Chilemba on July 11, he will be appearing at the same venue where an opponent he faced died from injuries suffered in their fight.

Kovalev and Roman Simakov will be forever linked in tragedy because of what took place in their light heavyweight bout on Dec. 5, 2011 at the DIVS Palace of Sports in Ekaterinrurg, Russia. Simakov was knocked out in the seventh round in a clash of rising prospects. He later collapsed in the ring and had to be taken out on a stretcher. He eventually slipped into a coma and died three days after the fight. He was just 27. Kovalev seldom talks about the incident.

But his promoter at Main Events, Kathy Duva said that Kovalev (29-0-1, 26 knockouts) didn’t have an issue returning to DIVS Palace of Sports in Ekaterinrurg, Russia even though it’s where his fight with Simakov took place. There weren’t a lot of other options for host venues near where Kovalev is from and Kovalev and his manager Egis Klimas assured her the incident would not affect him on July 11, Duva said.

“I did ask when I realized and was told by both Egis and Sergey that Sergey had put this in the past and he’s not concerned it’s going to affect him,” Duva said on a conference call on Wednesday. “There aren’t a lot of places near where he lives where the fight can take place so this is the biggest and the best one.”

Kovalev spoke on the incident shortly after the fight, saying he tried to visit Simakov in his dressing room after the bout only to find him not there. These days, Kovalev goes mum whenever the topic comes up. Kovalev, who is the WBA, IBF and WBO champion and is ranked No. 2 on THE RING’s pound-for-pound list, has fought 12 times since the tragedy, stopping 11 of his opponents.

“It’s the first time I’ll be there so I can’t say if it will be eerie for me,” Duva said. “I asked, I spoke to Sergey about it directly. I spoke to Egis about it directly. And they assured me this is not going to be a concern. Sergey is a professional and I respect his (opinion).”

Chilemba (24-3-2, 10 KOs) was asked directly what he thought of fighting at a venue where an opponent of Kovalev’s later died. He also showed little concern. “Whatever happened in that time is not what’s going to happen now,” Chilemba said on the same conference call. “We cannot put two situations together. This is a different time, so I don’t think about what he did or what happened. All I believe is the pressure is on Kovalev because he will be fighting in the place where he knew something happened when he fought there last time.”