It's obvious Kovalev doesn't know how to clinch or defend himself when he's hurt. Once he's hurt, he's a zombie waiting to be knocked out. Do you think things would be any different, perhaps survive the round if he took a knee when that first right hand from Canelo wobbled him? (13th second into the clip) This content is protected I mean, I don't know. Some fighters are simply not resilient. They cannot recover from a concussion. Kovalev is like that. AJ is like that. But some fighters are pretty good at surviving rounds when they get hurt, they hide it well (Pac for example, does this so good, sometimes you're not even sure if he was hurt in the first place) and if they can't, they avoid getting knocked out by clinching, running around avoiding contact, wrestling their opponent to the ground and spitting mouth piece as a last resort. Kovalev just stays there to get knocked out. In that context; he's a dream opponent for a KO artist. What do you say? PS: Can a mod add a poll please? I forgot.
Look at the punches Kovalev throwing, looks like Malignaggi trying to break egg shell, disgusting. He should have, but he didnt do **** to win this fight, so it doesnt matter. Kovalev have 0 survival skills and 0 inside defence whatsever, even his clinches look awkward like hell
He couldn't do it. It's not his strongest side. Kovalev is easy work for an opponent when he's hurt. Another Alvarez had little trouble KO'ing him after he dropped Kovalev for the 1st time. Kovalev was hurt, but got up and tried to trade punches, and of course got dropped twice more in mere seconds
Nope, this fight was over the minute Kov ran out of steam and lost the ability to KO Canelo. He was throwing that right like he was in light sparring. Nothing on it. The only way Kov was winning this one was by KO. A knee wouldn’t have changed the outcome other than to prolong the agony. Canelo was not going to lose on the cards no matter what happened during the fight. At least this outcome was more legit than some of his previous fights.
You're right but Kovalev didn't stay down when he was dropped by Eleider Alvarez. He instantly got up denying himself invaluable seconds to recover. Staying down for 7-8 seconds can make a huge difference in terms of getting your head together. Also there was more time left when he got dropped by E.Alvarez and it took around 1 minute until the first knockdown to the KO. Meanwhile in this instance, it was less than a minute left when he took that right hand that wobbled him. If he took a knee, it'd be around 35-40 seconds left to finish the round. I know these numbers don't mean much. I just think he could have (perhaps) survived the round if he took a knee and that could lead to him finishing the fight. He'd still lose a close decision but a decision loss nevertheless.
Canelo didn't give him a chance to take a knee he was right on him but it would have been a good idea
There was no room for him to take a knee. The first punch actually finished him, the second pretty much laid him cold.
The choreographed plan was for him to get KTFO, perhaps not as bad as he did, but that appeared to be the plan.
In this instance there wasn't much Kovalev could do once that first right hand landed. I thought Kovalev did well with it not making it so obvious to Canelo he was hurt badly by it. The problem here was that even the slightest notion of Kovalev being hurt and Canelo was going to torque it up another notch simply for the reason that Kovalev wasn't throwing anything of substance that whole night. Even just this clip here you could see Kovalev really just sticking his hands out tapping Canelo with them. For people who think those taps are scoring blows is just laughable. The way I score a fight, about 20 or those taps would equal just one ok jab landed. As for Kovalev taking a knee at the very instance he got hit with that first right hand? Absolutely not!!! Good fighters mentally condition themselves to simulate not being hurt when they really are. At that point Kovalev didn't really no if Canelo suspected he was hurt by the punch. Fighters usually take a knee when they feel the barrage of punches reigning on them and there's nothing they can do to stop it but take a knee. That wasn't the situation here. Canelo might have not exploded on Kovalev with the type of power he did if Kovalev was offering some type of offensive resistance to begin with. When you don't respect whats incoming, you explode on a fighter with power.
It wouldn't save him from KO. He was done, and Canelo knows how to finish glass-jawed opponents whn he hurts them - just watch James Kirkland fight
He felt the power, that’s why he was reluctant to throw the right hand and was merely sticking with the jab. That plan worked for him, considering the had the reach advantage and was winning rounds. Eventually he tired, got caught and the rest is history. It’s much easier for you to yell “THROW ENDLESS PUNCHES GODDAMMIT” when you don’t understand what is going on in there.
I couldn't find the clip that shows the last seconds from the reverse angle, but I can tell you, it was as obvious as it could be. I mean, unless you fall down, it hardly gets more obvious than this.
Stop fantasizing, i never wrote that he should have thrown more punches, he should have threw some punches to earn Canelo's respect and he didnt do it, not even once. Most fans noticed it, and pros like Badou Jack were wondering about it too.
Because he got nailed hard every time he threw his right hand. That was clearly Alvarez’ gameplan in this fight and Kovalev quickly had to adapt or get sparked early. HE felt the power, you, Bado Jack and the pros didn’t.