Both fighters in their early 30s. Who wins this fight? Kovalev is my 2nd favorite fighter ever, but I don't know about this one. It seems 50/50. Kovalev seems like the better technician with better timing and wrinkles to his game. But Beterbiev is no slouch technically either though with an extensive amateur background. He beat Kovalev in the amateurs. As far as power goes it's about even. Both hit ridiculously hard. But I must pick Beterbiev. Physically he's a hard man. I don't see Beterbiev tiring through attrition and he has a big advantage in strength and inside fighting. He's just too strong and deceptively skilled.
I would take the Kovalev that demolished Cleverly in 4 to beat any Light Heavy of the last 10 years with Beterbiev being his stiffest test. I just saw a man on a mission that night who exceeded the hype prior.
This match up... oof. Beterbiev did beat Kovalev twice in the amateurs. That being said this is not the amateurs. I see Kovalev winning late in what could only be described as manbear versus tank.
Its easy to tie up Kovalev. Beterbiev on the inside has insane strength (he ragdolled Gvodzyk to the floor THREE times outside of the 3 legit knock downs he scored) and he has crazy torque and power on his short punches. I can see Kovalev being hurt and stopped. We are talking about pre-alcoholic Kovalev, right? The alcoholic version gets blitzed even quicker. Sergei would turn into Pina Kovalev.
Nah. There were Russian boxing fans that watched the amateur bout between Beterbiev and Kovalev when Beterbiev won by a point, and they said Kovalev was robbed.
I’d like to pick kovalev because he does have the better boxing skill, but Beterbiev is very good technically and has dangerous power. Might not end well for kovalev who’s pretty chinny
Beterbiev is the biggest "What if" right now. He's probably past his best already and he's only had two victories of note. God only knows how good he really was.
You must be trolling here, the only explanation. Almost every P4P ranked fighter of the past decade has a better victory than Beterbiev.
So your point is what exactly... that Russian boxing fans disagreed with judges? Does that mean anything? I was unaware that for amateur record keeping, fans had to agree. Does this count for Olympic record keeping as well? Someone needs to find Roy Jones Jr then and give him a gold metal. Regardless, The official record states Beterbiev beat Kovalev twice in the amateurs. Kovalev would most likely beat Beterbiev prime for prime in his toughest bout.
He beat an elite boxer-puncher with elite technical skills and elite boxing ability and stopped in him. Gvozdyk wasn't cherry picked bum or some over the hill former great. Gvozdyk would box Canelo's head off.
Exactly, if Kov couldn't handle Ward's rough housing, AB pimps Kovalev out. Kov still has nightmares of what Ward did to him and his career.
He's always been the real deal. Beterbiev and his team have had issues with his activity for years unfortunately (like many very talented fighters). You're completely right, he's definitely the biggest "what if".