Highs and lows of TrillerVerz 5: From glove delays, surprise knockouts and Sergey Kovalev's victory over Tervel Pulev

Andreas Hale

•
Highs and lows of TrillerVerz 5: From glove delays, surprise knockouts and Sergey Kovalev's victory over Tervel Pulev image

INGLEWOOD — Former light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev was successful in his cruiserweight when he defeated Tervel Pulev in the main event of TrillerVerz 5 at the Kia Forum. It was a night highlighted by the successful performances of Fernando Vargas’ three sons known as The Vargas Dynasty and a VERZUZ battle featuring legendary Hip Hop groups Onyx and Cypress Hill.

MORE: Everything you need to know about Kambosos vs. Haney

But the night did get held up on a relatively sour note as an unwelcomed 90-minute delay between the opening fight and the co-main event took place courtesy of a glove issue where Jerry Forrest couldn’t fit his boxing gloves ahead of his fight with Kubrat Pulev. The energy was sapped out of the building by the time Kovalev and Pulev hit the ring at around 1 a.m ET.

The 39-year-old Kovalev (35-4-1, 29 KOs) may no longer have the power that earned him the nickname “Krusher” but he used a fundamentally sound jab to disrupt any attempt for Pulev (16-1, 13 KOs) to mount up much offense. Staying on his stick, Kovalev routinely fired his jab at Pulev, brother of heavyweight Kubrat, and had solid results as his opponent struggled to get around it. 

Returning to the ring for the first time since his knockout loss to Canelo Alvarez, Kovalev made a good account for himself at cruiserweight and plans to continue to campaign there. It was Pulev’s first loss of his pro career but it was also his toughest opponent by far. 

It will be interesting to see how Kovalev fares against the likes of Mairis Briedis, Lawrence Okolie and Yuniel Dorticos. There aren’t a lot of huge money-making fights but certainly some fascinating style matchups for the former champion. 

An odd scene where Jerry Forrest somehow managed to have gloves that didn’t fit his massive hands held up the show for 90 minutes until he was able to convince Kubrat Pulev to borrow a pair of his backup gloves for the fight.

And then Pulev soundly beat Forrest while the man wore his gloves.

That's the kind of night it was. Triller has made a habit out of memorable nights for one reason or another. 

Evan Holyfield (9-1), son of boxing legend Evander, also suffered the first loss of his professional career when he was shockingly knocked out in the second round by journeyman Jurmain McDonald (7-5). A straight right hand caught Holyfield flush and put him on the canvas face first. Although he would get to his feet, the referee saw him unfit to continue and halted the contest. 

The shining spot had to be the emergence of Emiliano Vargas, son for former champion Fernando Vargas, who made his pro debut and blitzed Mark Salgado for a first round stoppage. But even more significant was the ovation the 18-year-old received from the crowd that signifies the potential star power that he possesses. 

Here are the highs and lows from the fifth installment of TrillerVerz.

High: The Vargas Dynasty

There has been a lot of talk surrounding the three sons of retired world champion “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas. The boys — Fernando Jr. (25), Amado (21) and Emiliano (18) - all have high expectations and Triller decided to sign the boys to a multi-fight deal and give them a reality show. All they had to prove that signing them was the right decision. All three were featured at TrillerVerz and left with wins. Fernando Jr. needed only a round to stop Terrance Jarmon and Amado went the distance but was dominant against Anel Dudo. But it was Emiliano who has been praised by the family as the best of the bunch and he proved both his skill and star power as he annihilated Mark Salgado in the first round. He entered the ring to a massive ovation and didn’t disappoint as he pummelled Salgado. He earned, by far, the loudest pop of the night and it looks like we have a potential superstar on our hands.

 

 

Low: Pacing

This isn’t entirely Triller’s fault as an unexpected glove issue forced a nearly 90-minute delay between Emiliano Vargas’ fight and the co-main event. It also didn’t help that both the main and co-main went the distance. When it was all said and done, the show ended at around 2:15 a.m. ET. That’s unacceptable. It started off well with the pre-show and the Onyx vs. Cypress Hill VERZUZ was solid, but unspectacular (more on that later), but with the Emiliano Vargas’ fight ending at 10:40 p.m. ET and Forrest and Pulev not entering the ring until 12:15 a.m., the crowd was restless. Hopefully, pacing is something that Triller can fix moving forward.

High: Production

If nothing else, TrillerVerz 5 looked incredible. The lighting, large LED screens and overall presentation had a distinct cool factor. It felt different than what the other boxing promotions have done. Triller is truly on to something as long as they can find the right on-air personalities and fighters to legitimize the money being spent on the broadcast. Even the VERZUZ battle looked great with pyro to accompany the performances.

Low: Strange Combination of Music and Boxing

While a good idea on paper, Triller having Onyx vs. Cypress Hill was an odd choice for a fight card headlined by Sergey Kovalev and Kubrat Pulev. The crowds didn’t mesh well and those who came to see boxing didn’t really appreciate two legendary Hip Hop groups playing hits from the 1990s. And if you wanted to see Onyx or Cypress Hill, chances are that you had little interest in seeing Kovalev and Pulev fight. The fans barely got off their seats for the VERZUS battle and it just felt out of sync. It’s something that could be fixed with the right musical acts that compliment the fighters. Careful curation is necessary but this just wasn’t it.

High: Potential

Skewing young will help Triller a lot as they dip their toe in boxing. The music aspect also adds some additional seasoning that offers something different from what the other boxing promotions have. It’s obvious that TrillerVerz has potential but just needs some fine-tuning to bring all the elements together in a way that allows it to stand out and be respected by both casual and hardcore boxing fans. Nobody said it would be easy but there is definitely a way to pull it off and the ball is in Triller’s hands to make it happen.

Low: Not enough viral moments

The Vargas Dynasty was the highlight but two of the brothers fought on the pre-show. Evan Holyfield ended up getting knocked out in the second round of his fight against Jumain McDonald but that was also on the pre-show. That left us with a pair of plodding fights in the main and co-main while Emiliano Vargas only needed a couple of minutes to get the job done. There are times when “squash matches” need to be booked that put a big name against somebody they should knock out and this was one of them. Or, do some matchmaking that will help ensure fireworks. Either way, if Triller is going to capture the social media generation they need to find a way to spruce up some highlights that they can sink their teeth into.

Andreas Hale

Andreas Hale Photo

Andreas Hale is the senior editor for combat sports at The Sporting News. Formerly at DAZN, Hale has written for various combat sports outlets, including The Ring, Sherdog, Boxing Scene, FIGHT, Champions and others. He has been ringside for many of combat sports’ biggest events, which include Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-McGregor, Canelo-GGG, De La Hoya-Pacquiao, UFC 229, UFC 202 and UFC 196, among others. He also has spent nearly two decades in entertainment journalism as an editor for BET and HipHopDX while contributing to MTV, Billboard, The Grio, The Root, Revolt, The Source, The Grammys and a host of others. He also produced documentaries on Kendrick Lamar, Gennadiy Golovkin and Paul George for Jay-Z’s website Life+Times.