In an ideal world - how would you map out Kovalev's next 5 opponents

Stevenson
Ward
GGG
Fury
Amir Kahn

 

Ward
Stevenson
Beterbiev
Shabranskyy
Bivol

 

I'd like to see kovalev fight some of the Russian up and comers.

Ward first
Fonfara
Stevenson
Mekhenstov
Beterbiev

 

that's the line up any boxer should aspire to fight as it would basically put him as a shoe in for the hall of fame and a contenter for greatest 175 fighter ever

but it conflicts with modern fighters mind set which is, have one decent fight, then fight a can because you deserve an easy fight

I don't think kovalev has that mind set though

 

Those do nothing for his legacy, though. He should fight the contenders of his division and allow the up and comers to shine then fight them.

I think Bivol is the next Beterbiev. That should be his last fight from the 5 in my opinion. He's an up-and-comer with a promising future. Guy already fought Jackson Junior who made Lepikhin look terrible, which pretty much sealed the fact that he'd lose to Chilemba.

 

Ward, Stevenson, Beterbiev ... after that there are no real name fighters, really.

 

No, I don't think he does. He only fought Mohammedi because it was a mandatory. I remember how people were praising Caparello as the next dangerous contender. Kovalev went straight for him.

Ward moves up not 2 seconds and Kovalev is already breathing down his neck ready to fight him.

Beterbiev breaks through as the number 1 contender and Kovalev offers him a fight in Russia to which Beterbiev refused.

Kovalev doesn't mess around. He wants to fight the very best. I'm sure if it was up to him he'd fight all those guys I listed in a heartbeat.

 

I never said it was the case with kovalev im just saying a lot of modern fighters would laugh if you suggested they take on 5 huge challenges in a row. most fighters think they deserve a can for every hard fight they have

and caperello was not considered dangerous, unless it was some lunatics on here trying to hype him up and im a huge kovalev fan

beterbiev was never going to accept a fight in Moscow lets be honest, beterbiev would be fighting on incredibly hostile terrortory in Moscow. but I do think the fight should have happened

kovalev doesn't mess around just like ggg, the hard thing will be getting guys in the ring with him, however kovalev has a lot more great fights for him imo eg ward ,Stevenson,beterbiev,bivol, mekhontsev etc

 

No, I was agreeing with you.

I'm not saying Caparello was super dangerous, but he was featured on ESPN and people thought he had talent. I probably shouldn't have used dangerous, though.

Beterbiev's team didn't put it in those terms, though. They said they didn't think Beterbiev was ready to take the fight IIRC. They wanted one more fight. I didn't read anything about them worried about the location being hostile. I'm not familiar with how Moscow is towards Muslims. I'm assuming that is why Beterbiev doesn't want to fight in Moscow? I really, really don't know.

 

Jean Pascal III
Jean Pascal IV
Jean Pascal V
Jean Pascal VI
Jean Pascal VII

 

ya they said that and they are probably right to. Beterbiev is a Chechan and a muslim, I don't think he would want to fight in Moscow at all tbh. Russians I don't think would really care about the muslim thing but the fact he is chechan and that part of the world causes Russia serious problems wouldn't help he's case

and we now see top amateur chechan boxers like albert selimov defecting to Azerbaijan too

 

If we are assuming he wins each fight then:

1. Stevenson
2. Ward
3. Beterbiev
4. One fof the cruiserweight champions (doesn't matter which).
5. Wilder

 

Ward.
Stevenson.
Kud.
Wilder.
Haye.