Is Kovalev HOF worthy?

I'd argue yes

 

Yes he should be. It's messed up that he was robbed of his best victory against Andre Ward that decision was disgraceful.

 

No

 

HOF worthy resume IMO. He falls short from being an ATG but still a HOFer nonetheless.

 

I still maintain the belief that had that decision gone to his favor rightfully so I don’t think his career would have plummeted the way it did. Kovalev would have still maintained his focus, self confidence, and his dominance for a bit longer. We might have seen him face a prime Bivol and Beterbiev as well. It sucks how it all turned out for him but that’s boxing for you.

 

If he were American he might be inducted on the first ballot.
But as he is Russian I doubt he will ever be there.

 

Yep a lot of gronks don't know what a robbery takes out of a fighter. They think running it back in a rematch makes everything all better. When you put everything you have into it and you get blatantly robbed it takes a lot out of you mentally a lot of times it can be worse than taking a legitimate loss.

 

I agree. All fighters that feel ripped off will take the robberies differently. Either it motivates them to improve or it takes a lot out of them mentally. Very unfortunate that Kovalev just couldn’t hold it together.

It still irks me just thinking about how different Kovalev’s career might have looked if he walked away with a victory against Ward. There would be no controversy, no one would have cared enough to see a rematch, and we might have been able to see Kovalev against Adonis Stevenson the year after. It’s amazing how one bad decision can change everything in a fighter’s career path.

 

I think we need to differentiate ATG and HOF. To me if you were top 5 p4p any time of your career you’re a HOF. We don’t just randomly put dudes in top 5 p4p over one win, they have to build their resume. It’s why Teo wasn’t p4p top 5 when he beat Loma which is one of the best wins in boxing now.

 

He was arguably pound for pound number 1 after the first Andre Ward fight. Of course he’s a HOF. Wouldn’t class him as a ATG though.

 

I’m going to say yes. His resume is not the deepest, but he was an extremely watchable fighter, power for days, fought everyone he could and I don’t remember hearing of him ducking anyone.

 

Agreed, I used to be a Ward fan and was happy he got the decision at the time but the last several years I have dedicated a big part of my life to boxing and I see the hard work that gets put in and the repercussions of wins and losses I have re watched the fight several times and there is just no way Ward won that fight.

 

I honestly don't know if it would have made quite that much difference. The biggest difference probably would have been officially having a Ward win and perhaps a couple more decent performances (but probably not against top-level opposition, see point 2). He probably would have never got the Canelo payday either if he had got the nod vs Ward and stayed on track for longer. Some thoughts:

1. Kovalev likely was already been in decline before Ward 1, he was coming off a poor performance vs Chilemba and he gassed out in the second half of the Ward fight. He still should have been given the decision but a year-or-two-earlier version of Kovalev would've won easily IMHO.

2. If Kovalev won, Stevenson would have continued to keep ducking, Michel would have continued to be impossible to deal with, and he would have simply had to fight B-level opponents.

3. Even if Kovalev got the big fights, further decline might have given him worse results than we think. At his best, Kovalev was extremely good - but he only got top-level opposition once he'd declined to a more human level. Canelo for sure wouldn't have picked a prime Kovalev, and Ward was sort of forced in a corner - HBO required a big fight and GGG and Canelo had each other in sight by then. A prime Kovalev would have been too big and strong for Bivol - master boxer though Bivol is, more than likely to KO Stevenson, and probably a slight favourite against Beterbiev; but the version of Kovalev from Ward I plus some further decay & decline might well have been outboxed by Bivol and KO'ed by Beterbiev instead.

 

This.