A soft touch to build back his confidence he took a savage beating in his last fight against beterbiev.
If he really wants to make a statement, go after Kovalev. It's an easy fight with a known commodity, who's coming off the biggest fight of his life. If that's too much, which is likely, give him a can who's built up (someone like Yarde actually) and take it from there. Kovalev actually looks like the better option there for me.
I feel bad for him he took a lot of brutally heavy punches against Beterbiev and that was a real confidence sapping beating. Hopefully he can recover both mentally and physically from that as he's an excellent fighter and a lovely fella. Both Artur and Adonis are/were unquestionably two of the top 5 most savage punchers in the entire sport and an awful lot of world champions go their entire careers without having to face a KO banger of that caliber, let alone two of them in the space of three fights. Incidentally, speaking of Adonis, I was listing to a recent Mikkel Kessler interview earlier and he said the double vision he still to this day suffers from and which forced him to pull out of the Super Six was sustained during a sparring session with Adonis who he said hit extremely hard.
The Nail rips Kovalev and Yarde to pieces at this point. I don't see either fight being remotely competitive, and I love Kovalev. I have no desire to see him fight again, especially against the most dangerous man at LHW not named Beterbiev. Both of them are possible risks to Kovalev's life.
I don't either, but as a realistic fight with a big prize and an easy win for a comeback, it's perfect. Gvozdyk does damage to Yarde, but I happen to like Gvozdyk a lot more than him. So I don't overly care.
Kovalev is not a bad option, but Kovalev is not half the fighter he once was. I don't want to see Kov take another beating, Kov should retire. If Bivol-Beterbiev happens, Gvodzdyk can fight someone else in the meantime (maybe a journey man type), and then he can fight the winner or Bivol-Beterbiev.
Has the Nail done any interviews since he fought Beterbiev? I seem to recall he was in hospital after that fight for some days, or am I talking out my arse?
He was in the hospital but Teddy Atlas said it was because Beterbiev hit him in the back of the neck I have read quotes from Gvozdyck that he wants a rematch with Beterbiev
Not that I'm aware of or at least not English ones Yeah they kept him in for observation for a couple of days because he was experiencing pain in the back of his head (and he had a lump too IIRC)
He’s still a talented fighter. He made some fatal mistakes against Beterbiev, but if he learns from them he can still be a major player at 175.
