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.
I miss the HBO lot, again, like you, purely because I like the American commentary. The only time the British shows are bearable is when Paulie is there. Maybe it's because most of us grew up watching big fights on in America with American commentary, the Ward v Sanchez commentary sticks in my mind forever, it's the screensaver for my brain "and he will not make it up from that!" and the Morrison v Ruddock gem "Oh s**t! Holy Christ!" when that left takes out Razor from nowhere! This content is protected
This content is protected Matchroom idiots now lurking out of the woodwork... Spot the contradiction.
I have to disagree about Ward. HIs analysis was consistent with his views pre fight. For once he had it spot on This content is protected
Ward called a late stoppage and got it right so I don't disagree. I did say he was more reserved than Bradley. Post fight he has just tweeted conceding that Yarde was "2-3 punches away from stopping Kovalev", so clearly Yarde was ready for the fight and nearly pulled off the win. For me it was pacing the fight wrongly that led to him losing and not having the ability to keep up the pressure in the ninth round.
Story of the fight for me... [url]https://www.*******.com/sergey-kovalev-anthony-yarde-compubox-punch-stats--141970[/url] Kovalev 404 jabs thrown, 115 landed. Yarde 174 jabs thrown, 18 landed. From round 5 onwards, Yarde threw 98 jabs and landed 4. I’ve watched the fight twice now. Rather than throw a jab, Yarde tried to wait for Kovalev to throw a jab so he could counter it with a lead left hook. He had no success with this. They all missed. The reason i’m pointing this out is why was Tunde not telling his fighter to use the jab? It was woefully under employed by Yarde.
A Karpency, Chilemba or Murat I reckon. All coming off losses but potentialoy very good learning fights imo.
Thought I'd mention another myth that has been disproven tonight and yesterday also which is the claims that Yarde is 5'10" or even shorter. Kovalev is a legit 6'0" and Yarde stood eye-to-eye and head-to-head level with him at the weigh in and in the ring. That was a weird one the haters had for him. Grew legs after the Burton confrontation and people were going on about how Burton dwarfed him, conveniently forgetting that Hosea Burton is listed at 6'4" and would dwarf most LHWs.
That would be a good fight on paper. Unlikely though. Craig has a WBA trinket which would probably get Yarde a top 10 ranking if he was to beat him but it depends which champion Yarde wants to pursue next. I think Yarde will come back against a former world title challenger who is no longer a “threat” as such, which would be the smart thing to do.
Round 8, Kovalev is absolutely all over the place, very, very close to being stopped there. I know he ran out of steam after that but Yarde deserves credit, in the end he wasn't quite ready, he'd never had to go that deep into a fight before and it's a learning curve for him. I don't get the hate for him anymore, he's not rude or arrogant, he's just confident and he does things to makes himself feel more confident, which is exactly what you should be doing if your job is to get in a ring with World Class professional fighters, the very least you need is self belief.
