Kovalev vs Yarde Predictions

Just watched the fight without knowing the result in advance. Tremendous fight and Yarde so close in the 8th round.

Lots of idiots on here left with egg on their face. Yarde is a world level fighter and will come again.

 

Loads of crow pie served up tonight. You can tell by how literal foaming at the mouth angry some of the posters are over on the general that Yarde had the temerity to last it out and almost stop Kovalev. The latter of which they're strangely ignoring.

 

I think several posters on here literally **** themselves and possibly urinated in their pants simultaneously in that eight round. Lesson learned: try to rate a fighter objectively rather than regurgitate what Eddie Hearn says on IFL. People on here seriously thought that Burton was levels above Yarde. Just laughable. The fact that people failed to understand just how good Yarde’s win over Sjekloca was all I needed to know about the overreaction on here when the fight was announced and people actually thinking Yarde would be blown away.

 

Most of the naysayers here wouldn’t even be able to hold a guard for two rounds without quitting from exhaustion, without even throwing a punch.

 

He didn’t just “win a round” he nearly took out Kovalev right there. It was a great effort. Listen to what Kovalev said after the fight. This is a guy who verbally trashed Pascal after he beat the **** out of him and who hip thrusted at Cleverly during the fight when he was about to take him out. He’s not the kind of guy who praises an opponent out of courtesy. When he says Yarde is a “really good fighter” he is saying that because Yarde hurt him bad in that eighth round and put up a good challenge.

Kovalev almost always showboats in the ring and goes for the kill with spite. He didn’t do that tonight until Yarde was visibly exhausted. Why do you think that is? It’s because he felt Yarde’s power.

 

Yarde showed tons of heart, character & durability. He lasted a lot longer than I thought he would. The body shots and the eventual 8th round onslaught had me jumping out of my chair. Was a cracking moment.

I have a list of negatives though and felt that all my doubts were confirmed during that fight about Tunde and Yarde.

He’s had awful preparation and has not had sufficient build up in levels. Tunde has let him down and I don’t think Tunde had much clue in that corner with the advice when Yarde was going through adversity. He should have got him out of there at the end of the 10th. He was completely done. It was selfish and in stark contrast to Kovalev’s corner who threatened to pull him out at the end of the 8th. That’s a corner that knows how to look after their fighter.

He’s too big. It’s clear to see why he’s been fighting at a pedestrian pace. He has way too much muscle definition. He completely gassed to the point that a jab floored him. He doesn’t need that size. Future opponents will make him fight at a high pace and take him to deep waters.

His jab is very poor. He has no idea how to really use it. Kovalev jabbed him to bits as expected & stopped him doing his own effective work. He actually reminds me an awful lot of Eubank Jn. He gave up on trying to set his work up and walked Kovalev down instead, taking needless shots.

Sorry to be negative but just felt that I needed to be honest. That was a shot Kovalev who won nearly every round, he needs to either retire or sell his pride against Canelo cos he’s done. Yarde needs to drop Tunde to progress. They’ve had a nice little journey together but if he’s serious about progression then Tunde has took him as far as he can.

 

I don’t agree with the rhetoric that Kovalev is “shot”. Why do people think that? He’s been durable to the body since his prime, it’s nothing new. Is he shot because he didn’t hurt Yarde earlier? Maybe Yarde just has a great chin and durability. On what basis there do people think Kovalev is shot? He looked his usual self, very fit (probably fitter than previous fights) and boxed a very good game plan.

 

I found myself converted into a fan when this fight was made and after watching that I'll definitely be backing our man in the future fights. I haven't been that excited watching a fight, as I was in that 8th round, since Ortiz came so close to stopping Wilder, the only difference being that my cat also went nuts when Ortiz caught the gangly KO artist!

 

Also I watched the fight on the US broadcast with Ward and Bradley doing commentary with someone else who was doing the play-by-play.

They were MASSIVELY anti-Yarde. At every moment they were trying to lay into Tunde’s training style. Bradley was tearing into Yarde for not sparring and they were all lauding everything Kovalev did and just glossing over some of Yarde’s good work with his handspeed until the eight when Ward seemed to take credit for Yarde going to the body.

 

It wasn’t a knock on Yarde mate. I just felt Kovalev looked ragged, his jab was very good but he looked to me like he couldn’t let that right hand go like he once could, and he was pushing his shots out rather than the zap he used to have. Seemed to take a while to get his distance and timing too.
I didn’t subscribe to the ‘Kovalev is shot’ club before the fight and was saying he’s still top drawer. However, I think I can see why Frank Warren, Tunde, Canelo’s team etc felt it was the right time to face him.
Yarde did fantastic and will probably regret not finishing the job in the 8th.
Perhaps ‘shot’ was too harsh, but I think he’s down to about 50-60% of the fighter he once was.

 

Man I was watching that same broadcast too and was thinking the same thing. When Bradley looked to Ward to say that it was his blueprint someone should have stepped in and said "the difference being that Yarde is punching above the belt!"

 

I rewatched the Cleverly fight today and Kovalev looks a different man there. Definitely on the slide now at 36 years old, but still a world class fighter.

 

Yeah "shot" is defo too harsh. Maybe his hand speed is slightly slower now due to age and that's going to be the case for almost every fighter especially those who don't use PEDs. But Kovalev was never famed for having blistering hand speed anyway.

I'd say that Kovalev, due to his age is probably about 80-90% of his prime version now. But a key point is that his performance tonight, and his penultimate performance against Alvarez have been BETTER than some of his previous performances over the years - indicating that he actually has improved in some places.

And a key factor that many are overlooking is Buddy McGirt. He's a tremendous asset to Kovalev now, reads a fight better than most trainers and I believe he has probably augmented Kovalev's ability from a tactical standpoint.

He's definitely not shot although you are right in that his opponents now view him as a fading fighter and we all know he's vulnerable to the body - that's why Canelo fancied it.

For what it's worth, if Canelo-Kovalev is made next at 175, I'm backing Kovalev.

 

It was awful, Bradley was being OTT. Ward was being more sensible and reserved and clearly they had a job to big up Kovalev on the broadcast but I felt it was very unfair.

Still probably beats Rawling and Jones commentary, I don't know what it is generally, but when I'm watching boxing I prefer to hear American commentary. The standard of our pundits are awful compared to their's. Ward and Bradley were ****ing elite. That would be like having Calzaghe on the mic.