They were destructive (and avoided) Eastern European menaces who ruled as world champions, literally crushing a crew of competitors before meeting their fate and going quietly into the night.

But on the same week Russia’s Sergey Kovalev is closing his career with a farewell bout in his native Chelyabinsk, Russia, Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin has made news by pointing his promising countryman fighter to his ex-trainer Abel Sanchez.

“I’m just happy they’re patching things up. They gave us a lot of memories together, and a lot of nights we’ll remember ‘GGG’ for,” former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said on Wednesday’s episode of ProBox TV’s “BoxingScene Daily.”

Sentimental feelings were not connected to either fighter as they ruled their divisions. 

Golovkin posted 23 consecutive knockouts and defended his middleweight belt 20 times to clinch his Hall of Fame stature, while Kovalev maintained a mostly icy demeanor in ruling the light-heavyweight division.

“Stone-faced and stone in his hands,” former 140lbs champion Chris Algieri said. “He was bad news.”

Malignaggi agreed it was an “all-time miss” that Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson never staged a unification in the division, leaning to the notion that Stevenson was the culprit in the matter.

“[Kovalev] was the quintessential Hollywood villain. The scowl, mean, a death on his resume – a very good fighter and scary to deal with,” Malignaggi said.

Kovalev finally landed his big fight in 2016 against unbeaten super-middleweight champion Andre Ward, and dropped the “Super Six” champion in the second round before Ward impressively rallied to emerge with a unanimous-decision victory by three 114-113 scorecards.

In the rematch, Ward avoided getting punished for low blows by referee Tony Weeks and a frustrated Kovalev effectively surrendered in the eighth round.

“Ward was fouling in that [rematch], low blows to the knees,” Malignaggi said. “When you’re a villain, you’re unlikeable.”

Kovalev fought Canelo Alvarez in 2019 and was faring well into the late rounds before getting blasted by Alvarez right hands that ended the bout in the 11th.

“When he did have the big fights, he lost,” Algieri said of Kovalev’s Hall of Fame worthiness.

While that debate doesn’t concern Golovkin, the popular fighter closed his career on a sour note by parting with trainer Sanchez, who had his fighter watch old Julio Cesar Chasvez Snr. videos while they were sequestered in their Big Bear Lake training camps, and touted Golovkin’s “Mexican style” to fans who clamored for the action.

Upon landing a lucrative six-fight deal with DAZN, however, Golovkin worked to change the terms of Sanchez’s pay structure, leading to a split that resulted in a diminished version of “GGG” following his controversial draw and majority decision loss to Alvarez.

Yet, Sanchez revealed to BoxingScene Tuesday that he’s training promising Kazakhstan junior-middleweight Sadriddin Akhmedov, 15-0 (13 KOs) because Golovkin pointed his countryman to Sanchez.

“That makes me feel great,” Sanchez said. “Just because we had some issues with [Golovkin’s] advisors doesn’t take away from the fact he’s a great fighter and we had a great run. We made each other a lot of money, and we made each other a lot of history.”

On “BoxingScene Today,” 2024 trainer of the year Robert Garcia said the split “was difficult on Abel,” who briefly retired before now buying a new gym near his former headquarters. 

“You bring up this fighter nobody knows and come up with this ‘Mexican style’ – a lot of that had to do with Abel – and then when [Golovkin] makes the big money, the trainer [still] deserves his [10 percent] money, not less,” Garcia said.

That prompted Malignaggi to note that fighters have a far shorter career than trainers.

“It comes down to communication,” Algieri said. “Money changes drastically.”

The good thing for Golovkin and Sanchez is that time can soften grudges, and as the fighter of mutual interest progresses, the potential for reuniting the pair increases.