Sergey Kovalev vs. Isaac Chilemba RBR.

I was very impressed with Chilemba and his stock went up in my book despite the loss.

Look forward to seeing him fight in the future.

 

Kovalev looked awful tonight... No excusing that. But in hindsight if there's an unheralded LHW who can make a top guy look bad it's Chilemba. Made Bellew and Alvarez look bad(arguably did enough to beat both guys), exposed Lepikhin, beat Vlasov etc. Chilembas not elite but definitely a top 10 LHW who's very cagey.


Hard not to favor Ward after this showing... But it's ridiculous to suggest that that this wasn't just an off night for Kovalev. BUT the areas where Chilemba troubled Kovalev are obviously where Ward excels. I'm definitely nervous as a Kovalev fan, but at the same time I know he's more capable than this,

 

A tough fight isn't necesserily a bad thing, will show some things he needs to work on and realise he's not invincible.

 

Yea he's a tricky customer

Think kov didn't respect him enough

 

:good Chilemba is a cagey and hard guy to look good against, in fact no one has EVER looked good against him.

All that said. Kovalev needs to step his game up and going back to the drawing board if he wants to have a shot against Ward.

 

Fair enough. A lot of glaring holes were presented tonight, he needs to fix them. Ward does as well from the Barrera fight, lots of improvements to be made by both guys.

Kovalev definitely can win, same with Ward.

I'm sure you favour Kovalev as I favour Ward.

Great matchup.

This was a horrible showing though, tonight.

 

I'd favour Ward about 60-40 based on that performance in all honesty but one thing that needs to be said is that Chilemba is a tough dude, some of the shots he took tonight Ward may not have been able to. Though Ward is even more defensively trickier and can ride the punches better as well so he's even more difficult to land on.

 

This is good for Ward to take notes from.
Ward will beat Kovalev.

 

Damn, 7-5, 8-4 doesn't sound that impressive at all against Chilemba, who although tough and tricky, is not on the same league as Ward.

Can Ward win 2-3 rounds more than Chilemba? I believe so.

 

This is true.

 

Jewish is a more modern term usually used for non semite practioners of the faith who are European of descent. There are some African tribes that have a higher rate of the so called Cohen trait then the general population of Israel. They are true Hebrews, or Israelites.

 

Very corrupt scores

 

I don't think anyone will watch this fight and feel better about Kovalev's odds- it really was an off performance, and the areas that Chilemba had success with are ones that Ward can do better.

The one caveat I have is that having a fight like this, now, gives Kovalev another fight's worth of experience with a tricky/awkward fighter, and he'll have a nice notebook's worth of things to work on and shore up before the Ward fight.

Overall, my thinking is that if Ward survives all 12, he'll win. He's got the right blend of spoiling, accuracy, and pinpoint countering to win. The asterisk- and it's a huge asterisk- is that he's got to survive 12 rounds. Chilemba absorbed some big shots to do it himself, even with as bad as Kovalev looked.

 

I agree with your breakdown, but not the conclusion- this is exactly the kind of fight Kovalev needed for the reasons you stated. :good