When heavyweight Cassius Chaney (7-0, 4 KOs) returns to the ring on Nov. 26 to face veteran Carlos Sandoval (10-10-1, 7 KOs) on the undercard of premiere event for the Mohegan Sun’s Rising Stars on November 26 it will be the first fight working with his new trainer, John David Jackson.
The four-round fight with Sandoval will also be the first for Chaney since he underwent shoulder surgery over the summer. After he received the green light from his doctors to return to the ring, the 29-year old from New London, Connecticut headed to Oxnard, California to begin his first training camp with world-renowned trainer and former world champion John David Jackson. Jackson is best-known as the trainer for WBO, WBA and IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev.
Usually Jackson trains out of Boca Raton, Florida but he is currently in Oxnard to prepare Kovalev for his upcoming pay-per-view fight with Andre Ward. Therefore, Cassius and Main Events’ stablemate, Curtis “The Cerebral Assassin” Stevens, who also trains with Jackson, needed to move their camps to Oxnard as well so the two decided to live together for the duration of camp.
According to Chaney, “Curtis and I run together. We go to the gym together. We are all on different times with John but I go with him and watch him spar. We watch Kovalev spar too. I noticed that Curtis and Kovalev take their time when they spar and that is something I have had to learn to do. It is a different atmosphere. This is the first camp where I get to concentrate just on boxing.”
One of the big changes for Chaney between Jackson and his previous trainers is temperament. He said, “John is always telling me to relax. He is so mild-mannered. He is not too loud but he is not too soft-spoken either. He adjusts to me. If I pick something up quick, then he will move on to the next thing.”
Jackson added, “Cassius is a big lovable kid. He has boxing ability but it hasn’t been brought out in him yet. I am trying to make him become a better boxer. I want him to be more sound and use his jab more. He also needs to use his height and his distance. He is a big guy. He has that reach advantage over most fighters but he hasn’t been using that. My impression is that his best skills weren’t being brought out of him. I try to make all my fighters relax. They need to be able to relax in order to do their job better. I just kept telling Cassius to relax, relax. It allows him to punch better and use his jab a lot more. I told him not to put so much pressure on himself to impress anybody.”
Jolene Mizzone, Main Events’ matchmaker and 2015 NABF Matchmaker of the Year said, “This fight is a step up for Cassius and believe with the training camp he has had for this fight and working with John David Jackson, he will come out victories and more confident than ever.”
