Quote Originally Posted by Beanflicker View Post
That being said, I will concede that yes, Kovalev having a black trainer doesn't necessarily mean he's not a racist, and that for all we know John David Jackson puts up with horrible racist behaviour from Kovalev for the sake of a pay cheque. That's certainly possible.

I do believe that the relationship between trainer and fighter is usually a very close one, and if Kovalev hated blacks as much as people seem to believe, I question why he wouldn't just get another trainer? There are a ton of amazing non-black trainers out there who would love to work with a champion and possible world beater like Kovalev: trainers with much deeper resumes than JDJ.
Yet people called Hopkins racist while he was trained by a white guy.