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We can still see that fight. Kovalev is fighting Mchunu for WBC mandatory and Beterbiev said that he can move up for the belt.
Beterbiev has not meet his man yet so he will get a fair amount of vote here. But Prime Kovalev had the best jab and a better chin. I vote Kovalev.
I think Kovalev has better punching at range, Beterbiev is better up close. Assault rifle versus shotgun. I guess Kovalev KO's Beterbiev if he can keep him outside long enough, and Beterbiev KO's Kovalev if he can work inside enough with his short punches. Not sure who would win. All I know is that in their prime both KO Ward, especially Beterbiev, who is more immune to Ward's grappling/smothering because he has short arms and likes throwing at close range. Ward knew that too, which is why he didn't try to unify.
I lean towards Kovalev. Kovalev is the better boxer with a fantastic jab. He also has the timing and power to really punish Beterbiev if he tries to force the pace. Of course I am not writing Beterbiev off. It could be that Artur's mangling tactics and footwork keep the fight close and Kovalev is unable to sustain the damage over the course of the fight. But people forget just how good Kova was at his peak.
Beterbiev already beat him twice as an amateur. Kovalev says it was a robbery via corruption ..... ....yeah, because in Russia they used to favour the Chechen boxers back then(!)
Prime Krusher gets the Win I believe. Talking about the Kovalev that beat Pascal the first time, Hopkins and Cleverly. Before he started to recklessly hit the bottle and not train as hard as he should. THAT Kovalev was H2H top 5 All Time in my opinion. Believe it or not, I think the guy that had the best shot at beating Sergey at or near his best, was The Nail. The range, footwork, hand speed and sharpness of his punches would give Sergey problems imo. And Gvozdyk DEFINITELY had more than enough power to drop Krusher. I think it would just be a styles thing. Call me crazy.
I guess I’m one of the few who’s still angry about not seeing Prime Kovalev vs Prime Stevenson. Now it’s looking like the powers to be are trying to avoid Beterbiev vs Bivol. We never got Jones Jr. vs Michalczewski. Can the LHW division get it right for once please. That said in a true firefight I’ll go with Kovalev due to his ability to land what might have been the most powerful jab in that division. I can’t see Beterbiev being elusive enough to dodge it. However if he was to get inside he would make it hell for Kovalev.
Probably Kovalev but will depend on how much Vodka Kovalev is consuming in training. I would be rooting for King Arthur though who is a good guy. I can’t root for an unreconstructed racist like Kovalev. Andre Ward served justice for the culture when he beat him and took his soul.
Beterbiev is a brute and obviously has a lot of skill but I think prime Kovalev has more dimensions to his game than AB. leaning towards Kova but Beterbiev does has a habit of getting to people eventually even if he looks vulnerable in the process.