Now that Kovalev looks finished, just how good was he?

Stevenson would have KTFO Kovalev out. I’ve being saying that for years.

 

I think he is in with a shout for the HOF material imo, if you can unify 4 belts, one belt at a time you gotta be in the discussion.

 

He wasn't my favourite fighter and I've not turned on him, but that is for the reply.

 

its not a strong shout, as unification was just part n parcel of being a decent champion once.

but it would help.

 

Yeah true it was but in this day and age, only few of the top fighters really go for unifications.

Kovalev like GGG were dominant when the division was weaker and now it’s strong unfortunately for the fans they have aged and have been worked out abit.

 

The Kovalev that beat up Cleverly was a beast. He experienced gradual decline since then. Few fighters are in their prime past 33. 35 is usually the age where dramatic decline starts to occur. The exceptions to the rule (Mayweather, Hopkins) cause us forget this fact.

 

Kovalev had deceptively good boxing skills to go with the power.

Spinks, Ezzard Charles, Jones, and Moore all beat him. I had Ward winning both fights.

I think Kovalev would've taken out Foster. Foster couldn't deal with bigger fighters and Kovalev was a big, day before weigh in light heavy with power. I think he'd probably beat Tarver and Dawson, but those fights would be competitive.

Adonis has to have the better resume at this point.

 

He was a beast agreed, but how beastly a beast was he. Cleverly isn't the best measuring stick.

 

Outside top 10. Easy.

He could of been a HOFer. Had he been humble, trained and been prepared to give it all to the sport.

Instead he got a world title some money and went down hill.

Luf, easy way to summarize it is to let his trainer say what has to be said:

"I knew that we could have won the rematch but Sergey started making money, getting big headed and he didn’t want to train hard anymore. Every camp was worse and worse.

I was doing some body work on Sergey, I made him fold up. I’m 54 years old and he couldn't take it. I told Don, if Ward can get inside, withstand his early shots then he (Sergey) is in trouble and that is what happened, he proved me right."

 

He was never as good as many here are making him out to be. He had a soft level of competition who feared him until he ran into Ward. Many of his opponents were beaten before the bell rang. Such was the case with Mike Tyson.
Kovalevs unbeaten streak was very similar. The first fighters , who were not scared, beat the crap out of him. He was a typical bully, much like Tyson. And much like Tyson, any fighter who dragged him into a war, folded him like a wet rag. Kovalev lost all my respect when he made the ridiculous claims that Ward knocked him out with low blows. That was the night that I saw the mental break down, the self doubt and the quit in Kovalev. From that night on, it was over for Kovalev. The Crusher has been Crushed.

 

Who are the top ten though? Nobody is making lists.

 

This is my top 9. There's a few vying it out for 10th

Roy Jones
Ezzard Charles
Archie Moore
Michael Spinks
Dwight Qawi
Bob Foster
Gene Tunney
Billy Conn
Saad Muhammad

Guys like Kovalev, Conteh, Ahumada, Hill, Dawson, Tarver, Stevenson, Eddie Mustafa and that's not to mention some of the names from yesteryear who aren't readily available on film.

 

Well, Ward is clearly ahead of him if we're going on the eyetest, so that makes it difficult to squeeze him in at ten. (He just is. Chin, versatility, and boxing IQ go a long way.)

If we're gonna lump in 168 and old timers, there's Langford, Calzaghe, and some others who put him out.

If you go by resume, guys like Harold Johnson **** on him. His resume is pretty weak unless you refuse to accept the first Ward fight as an L.

At absolute best, you could give him maybe the 10 spot if you're just going by eyetest. He's kind of like Saad Muhammed wthout the big name wins when you consider the falloff.

 

There's no truly elite fighter that didn't end up inin the hof

 

I class Ward and Calz as a SMW and Langford as a CW.

I do rank entirely by the eye test, resume alone there's no way he gets in but based on potential h2h fights against a field of peers I'm not so sure.