Eleider Alvarez vs. Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

Gvozdyk is an excellent counter puncher and would be able to parry and counter his jab with a straight right, and from what I've seen Alvarez's chin ain't all that great. He was hurt by Pascal a few times, and Prieto hurt him badly. I think this match would be a walk in the park for Oleksandr actually. Nail by KO3.

 

Skill and power wise I think they're pretty much equal, both have beautiful technique and know how to land a punch to do the maximum amount of damage. Which IMO would lead these two to fight hyper cautiously, neither seeking the KO both trying to school each other, and we might end up with a controversial SD one way or the way.

That being said, if forced to choose, I go Krusher by KO.

 

Alvarez was rocked or hurt numerous times by Isidro Ranoni Prieto and Prieto had him in big trouble in the 6th round. He also suffered a KO4 loss in the 2007 world amateur championships to the Egyptian Ramadan Yasser Abdelghaffar. Lots a top class pros, world champions and even legends of the sport have suffered KO loses or stoppage loses in the amateurs, but Gvozdyk didn't and he's not only the best looking LHW of all time, he's the best looking boxer of all time, period. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

 

The Kovalev that Krushed Campillo, Cleverly, Sillakh, Lionell Thompson, Cornelius White etc. was better than the Kovalev of the last 3 years, IMO. He had better punch variety and there was a looseness and a fluidity to his shots and the way he put combinations together.

How often do you see him doubling, tripling or even quadrupling up on left hooks these days? His attacks were more varied and less predictable back then and as a result his opponents found it more difficult to read where the next shot was coming from. Nowadays he's relies much more on the jab, right hand and he doesn't throw as many left hooks as he did back then.

Gvozdyk is very fluid and loose and he has great punch variety. That's why he was able to handle Chilemba so well, because Chilemba wasn't able to read and anticipate his attacks as easily as he was Kovalev's.

Watch this sequence from the Campillo fight, from where I've time stamped it to when the ref waves it off. Look at the way Kovalev picks his shots and mixes them up going from head to body, body to head and how many left hooks he's throwing and how he doubles and triples up on them. The sequence of shots that puts Campillo down for the third and final time are class.

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Look at this beautiful right hand he flattens Thompson with.

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Watch the Cleverly fight too. This is just brief highlights of the finish

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This is one of my favourite Kovalev moments from the last few years. He gets Pascal on the ropes and lets loose with both hands, to head and body with rights and lefts. See how effective it is when he comes back with that big left that sends Pascal reeling into the corner.

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