I'm glad you said this so I can clear up any misconceptions-not between me and you. Kovalev wasn't as clinchful as Wlad, but if you got close to him, he clinched you or aggressively grabbed you. Wlad had this same bad habit. Wlad learned under Steward to clinch properly at the right time instead of everytime a guy got inside in the latter part of his career. You do this if your caught out of position, hurt or trying to frustrate a guy. Against Ward this was blatant in their first fight. Imo the judges saw this and didn't like it which is why he lost. Imo. I don't think Kov lost. I can say that with conviction. In his biggest fights you see this bad habit. Even in the Yarde fight the ref had to tell him st times that he can't do that and he was properly warned. Against guys that he ran over who were probably at the end of his shots and couldn't get inside, he was a superb technician like Wlad, maybe even better. But against the very best, if Kov got crowded, at times he would either shoulder you, jump in the air or grab a guy and hold him down with either his upper body weight or hold you under his arm. All we have to do is see go to the video tape. Kov will not fight you on the inside, and imo there always comes a time where you just have to bite down and grind it out on the inside. Kov won't do that. It's too late to learn that. What McGirt has him doing more is jabbing, clinching properly and at the right time jabbing and going to the body and moving away. Kov was always a coming forward guy. McGirt has loosened his stiff ass up. Now he's fighting smarter and that's how you add to a style when you don't fight on the inside which is genius by both McGirt and Kov. It helped him pull out a tough win. Kov throw punches and moves now. He did this against Alvarez and Yarde. Two very good wins in my book.
Because if we all thought the same, we wouldn't see the difference in posting between a guy like me and a guy like YOU.
