In a battle of two Russian light heavyweights, who were seen by many to be equally even in their abilities before the fight, 28-year old former amateur star (and 2008 Russial national champion) Sergey Kovalev (17-0-1, 15 KOs) delivered a frightful beating to WBC #9-ranked Roman Simakov (19-2-1, 9 KOs) before stopping him in the seventh to acquire his opponent's WBC Asian Boxing Council title.
Kovalev debuted in the paid ranks in 2009 and quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with on American soil, where he got all but one of his victories. Sergey has already fought in Russia and got a spirited win over tough Karen Avetisyan. Simakov, 27, was presumed to be as tough as Avetisyan but that wasn't the case. Nevertheless, Kovalev's advantage in the starting round was minimal.
It was the second stanza when the native of Chelyabinsk finally started to deliver punishment to the Kemerovo native. Simakov was seemingly not in the same league with his firing opponent. Kovalev changed angles, combined punches and didn't forget about body punching and landing stiff jabs right into the face of Simakov. Roman tried the only tactics he could inducing pressure on Kovalev but that didn't help him much as the elder Russian kept blocking Simakov's punches. Rounds two-to-four were all in Kovalev's favour.
Simakov did better in the fifth, which was an even round as he found some uppercuts to trouble Sergey on the inside. For Roman that was the very essence of his activity; for Kovalev - just a pause in his activities. In round six, Kovalev started to punish Simakov at will, and Roman was soon forced to take a knee. He was able to survive until the bell, however. The end came soon thereafter. In the seventh, Kovalev landed a couple of punches with a special accent on his left hook. Simakov took another knee and was counted out.

After being counted out, Simakov lost consciousness and was removed from the ring on a makeshift stretcher. He underwent brain surgery but never regained consciousness and died on December 8.