Kovalev to defend against Najib Mohammedei next

Mohammedei is a decent fighter, is on a long winning streak, and is the mandatory. Nothing wrong with this fight for Kovalev-a guy who fights often and against some of the best.

The one problem I can see with this is that I don't view this as an HBO Championship main event caliber fight. Mohammedei might be a solid enough fighter but Kovalev will run right over him.

This would be a nice co-feature to a different main event fight but I think HBO sees Kovalev as strictly a headliner at this point.

If Kovalev-Mohammedei is made I would really like to see HBO do a strong co-feature to go with it.

 

Uggggghh.

I doubt Adonis would have signed right up for the fight over the summer anyways, but... I dunno, I guess I was just wishfully thinking.

 

This is essentially going to be Kovalev vs. Sillakh II.

 

Are you telling us he's less imaginative than Tyson Fury ?

 

nuclear war.
He already beat Campillo, Hopkins and Pascal.
And frankly Chilemba, Karpency, Fonfara are on the same level as Najib. Najib could beat them all to be honest.

Its a good fight, he wont be a complete pushover and it will lead to bigger and better things.

 

Mohammedi deserves a title shot (more than most Stevenson challengers)

This will be a mismatch, but Mohammedi has earned it...

 

That was years ago now. Mohammedi has continued to improve, while Sukhotsky has somewhat plateaued.

If they had a rematch I would pick the Algerian to outbox him over twelve.

 

A lot of people on here don't understand mandatories for some reason and that is surprising because it is a boxing forum.

 

Gotta disagree with you there IB.

Fonfara, Bellew, Cloud > Mohammedei

Ironically, the worst defense Stevenson has, and the only one worse than Kovalev defending against Mohammedei, is over the guy who KO'd Mohammedei in 2 rounds. And it wasn't like it happened way back in 2007 or anything.

Sukhotsky dropped Najib out in 2 rounds in October of 2011. And Najib hasn't scored great wins since, at all.

I like Kovalev a lot and hate Stevenson too but lets not be idiots all of a sudden here to push our agendas.

 

Most people on here say they don't give 1 tiny little care about title belts.

Then when their favorite fighters take on a soft-touch mandatory opponent, they all of a sudden love title belts and think the world of them and how fighters must keep them!

Until someone they hate takes a soft-touch mandatory and then it is back to, "who cares, drop the freakin' belt already!!!"

 

Mohammedi has, since his loss to Sukhotsky, knocked out Doudou Ngumbu, Anatoliy Dudchenko, and Oleksandr Cherviak, and widely outpointed Patrick Bois. All four are meaningful victories given the fact that all were for something (WBF trinket, IBF eliminator, WBA Intercontinental title, and French national title respectively) and the four of them were on unbeaten streaks of varying lengths: Bois 4-1 in his last five, Dudchenko on a 16-0 (10) run including an exposure of unbeaten hype job Woge, Cherviak 4-0-1 (3) in his last five including an exposure of unbeaten hype job Dirks, and Ngumbu on a 3-W streak including a win over Kuziemski.

Compare with Fonfara, who "earned" his title shot by defeating: shot Byron Mitchell 1-4 in his last five and coming off a loss, shot Glen Johnson 2-4 in his last 6 and coming off a loss, Tommy Karpency 2-2 in his last four and coming off a loss, shot Gabriel Campillo 1-2-1 in his last four. Those are his four best, maybe better names than Mohammedi's best 4 on paper, until you take circumstances into account. Six of Fonfara's last ten opponents heading into his shot with Stevenson were coming off a loss.

Sukhotsky had, since his loss to Corny White, beaten four men of whom three were coming off losses. The only remotely decent one being Gutknecht, who in his next bout drew in an eight-rounder with a 3-3 guy.

Bellew since his loss to Cleverly was: coming off the Chilemba rematch, fine, good win, but the draw the first time should've been a loss. Before that was Bolonti with his domestically padded record, Miranda 3-3 in his last six and coming off a loss, and Danny McIntosh 3-2 in his last five and coming off a loss. So does the one solid win in that run (Chilemba II) by itself outweigh Mohammedi's four slightly lesser individual wins? Nope.

Cloud and Dawson? Coming off extremely one-sided psychologically (and in Dawson's case physically, given the demands of frenetic weight-jumping) debilitating losses.

So...yeah...

 

Kovalev Ko3