In terms of their chances of beating Kovalev, I rate them... 1. Gvozdyk 2. Bivol 3. Barrera 4. Stevenson 5. Beterbiev I'd favour Gvozdyk and Bivol to use lateral movement, get inside, throw off Kovalev, outbox him, and pull out wins. Barrera should win some rounds and have some success, but only before getting laid out. Stevenson might stay away for a couple rounds but Kovalev quickly finds him and beats him up, then stops him. Beterbiev might beat the others and I think he'd be the ultimate test for Ward, but Kovalev's a bad style matchup for him, Kovalev outboxes him easily.
It's all speculation. Probably the one with the more powerful promoter and most potential A side advantages.
Barrera and Stevenson get stopped. The other guys would be way more competitive. Gvozdyk and Beterbiev are 50/50 fights against Kovalev.
Well Beterbiev has already beat him in the amateurs... so him first. Bivol is just as hard of a hitter as Kovalev, except younger, more athletic, faster, and without bad habits. the other 3 have a 50/50 shot of beating him.
100% this. I think Gvozdyk is his kryptonite because I think he could box at range with Kovalev better than the others and I think he would probably be highlight reel KO'd against Beterbiev and probably even Bivol. I could even see him losing to any of the others. Can't see Beterbiev closing the distance against Kovalev well at all and think Kov has improved a lot since his amateur days while Beterbiev I don't think has improved at all. Really not that impressed with Beterbiev considering all the hype he's gotten since his amateur days, but would still probably favor him against that loaded list besides Kovalev. I think Beterbiev would probably turn Stevenson into a paraplegic and could see him brutally KO'ing Barrera and Gvozdyk too. If anyone on that list beats Beterbiev besides Kovalev I'd bet all I have it'd be Bivol. Against the other fighters on that list I think Gvozdyk either wins or loses emphatically and spectacularly. Light Heavy is absolutely stacked for the foreseeable future. That division is gonna produce some savage KO's in the coming years and will probably be a straight up NATO designated war zone for the next 5-10 years and some of what takes place in it will probably leave viewers with severe PTSD. Each of the listed fighters is like it's own infantry battalion and the combat in the ring I think is gonna be stone ****ing cold.