168 is heating up

What a dumbass

 

I know! Someone needs to tell canelo

 

Kovalev wasn't completely shot he was certainly past his prime but not completely shot he was coming off good wins against Alvarez and Yarde where he looked good and he gave Canelo a lot of problems in that fight and was winning rounds. Canelo said in the post-fight interview it was a much tougher than expected bout.

Canelo did pretty clearly pick the weakest of the champions at 175 tho as a test the waters fight and to get a belt in a 4th weight class. He won but he struggled which is why he's gonna spend the rest of his career at 160-168, because he knows that if he struggled with a past prime Kovalev then Beterbiev and Bivol who are both in their prime who outsize him and outgun him would clean his clock. Nobodys acting like Yildrim is gonna be a good important career legacy win for Canelo its a stay busy fight to keep him active for the BJS fight in May.

Canelo beating Smith is a good win he was the consensus number 1 fighter at 168 in his prime and he could barely win a round against Canelo. A lot of people are too blinded by their hate to acknowledge stuff like this but facing the best fighters in your division and winning handily is something that should be applauded instead of trying to nitpick a fighters record and come up with excuses about how it's not an impressive thing to be a 4 weight world champion and be consistently fighting the top fighters in your division and continue to win.

Im not particularly fond of Canelo as a person but my opinion of him as a person has nothing to do with his achievements and accolades. It's time we separate the art from the artist and look at things objectively.

 

Some people are here for the drama in boxing, not actually for the sport of boxing.

 

i think this was a perfect storm type of situation.
kessler was the favourite going in, yet had lost pretty convincingly to calzaghe.
froch got his golden ticket based on the jermain taylor win, so it was a chance for him to cement his name on a bigger stage.
similarly for abraham, who had only played the 'stay at home and milk the casuals' game previously.
dirrell and ward were pretty obscure prospects at the time.

so i think all of them felt they had everything to gain going in, and really nothing to lose.

 

Kovalev did NOT look good against Yarde

He looked shot to bits and was out on his feet for a brief period, against a very average Yarde

 

Rewatch the fight Kovalev won every round outside the 8th where Yarde caught him with a big shot and tried to finish him and then continued outboxing him and finished him with a jab. Yarde looked sharp af and was on a absolute tear when he fought Kovalev.

 

Although I think it ended up being good for boxing as a whole, for some it was sort of a mixed bag of tricks. Kessler and Abraham had their loyal fanbases at home, but were looking to branch out. They were the faves going into it.

Neither came out of it with the standing in boxing they expected, or with what they went into, truthfully.

I’d say 3/6 came out of the tourney worse for it. Kessler, Abraham, Taylor.

Dirrell was an oddball. He was an obscure, questionable inclusion going in, and came out as a puzzling fighter with obvious talent, but seemingly without the will to put it all together.

Froch and Ward were the obvious big gainers.

Froch didnt really have the fanbase going in, but did afterwards, and really grew it in the years following in avenging the Keesler loss and KOing Lucian Bute, and Groves x2.

Ward was given little chance going in, but the Kessler win opened some eyes(no pun intended). In winning the tourney and further exploits, he established himself as a world class talent, then a p4p talent, and a superb multi-weight tactician.

 

Winning rounds v Yarde does not mean Kov isn't shot. Also once he was tagged he was on **** street.
This is the same Yarde that was having fits in his last fight against a one armed fighter.

 

agree with every word of this.

 

Even when I called Kessler Keesler?