Russian brawler Sergey Kovalev successfully defended his WBA (Super), IBF, and WBO Light Heavyweight titles against French challenger Nadjib Mohammedi via a third round knockout at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday. He is reportedly eyeing a fight with reigning super middleweight champion Andre Ward next, as Yahoo Sports.

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Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) floored Mohammedi (37-4, 22 KOs) for the second time in the match near the end of third round with a thudding left straight and the Gardanne, Bouches-du-Rhône native was left on his knees as he waived to referee Kenny Bayless his unwillingness to continue.

The heavy-handed Russian landed 67 out of 170 punches for a 39 percent rating while the Frenchman connected on 17 out of 96 throws for a mere 18 percent, courtesy of CompuBox as posted by Bleacher Report.

Kovalev is at his typical predator-like best, stalking and walking through Mohammedi the whole duration of the short-lived match that is scheduled for 12 rounds. His fists were like hammers pounding on his opponents' gelatinous face, who could not put up anything against the 6-footer's crushing blows.

He caught him with a roundhouse right to the temple in the second round after a flurry of power punches to send him on the floor for the first time in the bout. Mohammedi suffered more in the third but gestured to the ref that he had had enough after the second knockdown, prompting the end of the match.

The scary part about fighting Kovalev is he still wants his opponent to stand up and continue fighting after he just absorbed a vicious knockdown.

"I'm very happy that I got the victory," Kovalev told HBO Boxing's Max Kellerman in the ring after the fight. "I gave my best. I am happy. I told him to stand up. It was a short show. People didn't see boxing."

A few moments later, Kellerman mentioned the name that fans around the world was hoping for the light heavyweight champion to fight next: Andre Ward.

"Max, again I repeat, I'm ready for any fighter," Kovalev told Kellerman. "Any fight. Any opponent. It's boxing. It's sport. If fans want to see this fight and promoters want to make this fight, I'll be happy."

However, ESPN indicated that Ward's camp had turned down Kovalev's challenge because the American wanted to fight middleweight king Gennady Golovkin first and then the Russian afterwards.

If everything falls according to plan, then the boxing world may see a surplus of great fights in the months to come.

TagsBoxing, Boxing 2015, Boxing News, Boxing News 2015, Boxing Rumors, Boxing Rumors 2015, Sergey Kovalev, andre ward