Canelo vs Gvozdyk short sparring footage

Got himself a great sparring partner to prep for this fight.

I think gvodzyk was better than bivol

 

Is the nail planning on coming out of retirement?

 

Surprised Canelo would put this out.

 

Very light sparring session there though.

Pretend punches all round.

 

Wouldn't even call this sparring footage

Canelo himself was pulling his punches

 

It looks like the Kovalev sparring session minus the headguards

 

How sparring should be for top guys as you get closer to the fight. It should be having a dance and working on timing, on certain punches. Hard sparring is a western thing, that’s why American fans think sparring means something and get excited about it. Everywhere else around the world sparring is light and technical, working on certain things. The only fight is the fight. Any fighter that loves gym wars, they always underperform on the night and have shorter careers.

 

Or brain damage.

It's not cool to take punches to the head.

Look at James Toney for example. He was slurring in his speech by his early 30s.

 

Once you start getting concussed it’s easier to get concussed. Toney is lucky he had an iron chin and no neck. As you say he still quickly ended up as mumbling and incomprehensible. Thinking of guys like Kirkland who sparred hard and became chinny quickly, and Haney having a glass chin after his constant gym wars already as a young man. Zab Judah talked about his tough gym wars. I really think there’s something to the gym wars and cracked chin connection.
I also remember Roy Jones used to get criticised for his light and limited sparring in his prime. His chin seemed fine then, it wasn’t until the Tarver crack that he started to get wobbled every fight. That turning point probably happens to a lot of fighters behind closed doors. Chad Dawson was another one, dropped in sparring and then getting stopped by Andre Ward. Concussion isn’t something that you tough your way through.

 

Looks exactly like Canelo Kovalev fight

 

Exactly dude. When it catches up with you, it'll will hit hard and severely deteriorate your quality of life.

 

A prime Govzdyk would probably be the best fighter that Canelo had ever fought by some distance in fact. Not in a p4p sense, but in a literal sense.