'When he punched me, my nose exploded': Woman says attack by Sergey Kovalev left her needing a plate and four screws in her neck

A woman has accused Russian boxing superstar Sergey Kovalev of punching her, saying she needed a metal plate and four screws to be inserted into her neck to repair the damage.

Jamie Frontz told U.S. gossip outlet TMZ Sports that Kovalev had struck her after she rejected his advances following an initial meeting at the opening of a boxing gym in California in 2018.

According to Frontz, the pair were making out on the couch when she felt him become aggressive, so she pulled back.

Her dog, sensing a problem, jumped between the pair to protect her, and Kovalev pushed it to the floor, then kicked it in the chest.

Then, she said, he punched her in the face.

"When he punched me, my nose exploded," Frontz said.

"Blood went everywhere. There was blood all over the cabin. All over the walls. All over the carpet. All over everything."

According to Frontz, the boxer left her with a broken nose, concussion and with facial cuts. It also allegedly left her with a herniated disc in her neck that caused tingles down her arm that felt like "red ants."

"I literally was scratching holes in my arm until they bled because what he had done to my neck," she said.

Frontz told TMZ she needed four surgeries, and may need a fifth to fix a nagging issue with her nose since the incident.

She sued Kovalev for the attack, demanding a payout of $8 million, but settled on a more modest figure of $650,000. However, she says she has received only $250,000 of the cash, and is opening legal proceedings against him to retrieve the remainder of the money.

Kovalev, who lost his light heavyweight titles to Canelo Alvarez in his last outing, was arrested and charged with felony assault for the alleged attack, but he pled not guilty. The case is still pending, and if he is eventually found guilty, he faces up to four years behind bars.