Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward

Lolwut.

 

Lolwut.

 

35-33-1, Oakland's own pulling ahead.

 

Ward has the better chin (excellent but non-iron versus above-average); Kovalev has exponentially greater power (bone shattering versus bang-on average).

 

Regarding the above, for scale:

Adonis has considerable power (more than Ward, less than Kovalev) but a below-average chin (glass is an exaggeration).

Either one knocks him out. So the winner here is really the clear #1 even without the green belt.

 

Styles make fights. Ward has superelite defense just like Hopkins did, but he so far has never had to show that nitty-gritty survive-by-any-means-necessary aggregate of attributes that Bernard had. Movement, picking off shots, rolling with them, clinching when buzzed (and downplaying it with a first rate poker face) and other negative/spoiling tactics, and then having an iron chin to fall back on. Hopkins was a perfect storm of nigh un-KOable. Ward is much of the same in some of those areas but not the same overall package.

Ward has routinely throughout his prime taken more flush hits from B+ or lower tier opponents than Hopkins did even in his twilight.

Hell, arguably even against Kovalev the old man was cagier and harder to find with anything clean than was his stylistic descendant by, say, Paul Smith at times.

 

Kovalev will get in shots he won't see coming, though. His attacking pattern is so damn unusual. He isn't Kessler (a beautiful pure boxer, among my all time faves, but extremely 'vanilla' in his approach compared with Kessler...textbook, in a not altogether flattering sense in this context)

Ward can expect all he wants, never has anyone he faced brought the same heat and torque, let alone presented in such a confounding manner. Playing a bait and counter game with Kovalev is like tiptoeing in almost pitch-black over a hopscotch board where every other square contains sulfuric acid. You can be Gregory Hines, you could well still be losing a foot with the slightest well-intentioned misstep.

 

Buff Daddy at the podium.