Okay numbnuts, it only took him 12 ****ing rounds of CLEAN hurtful non stop connects to FINALLY drop and stop a guy who's been dropped early and hurt in all three of his recent fights. And add to that dropped by Ward, on top of being shutout against Ward, so of course that translates to him being able to walk through the punches of a superior technician with vicious KO power, who unlike Barrera beat Ward, makes sense. You do realize that Kovalev dropped Ward by countering over a straight right right? One of Bivol's best punches. You do realize Kovalev dropped Slava like 4 times and stopped him in 2, Barrera took far longer. There's levels here, and Barrera IS NOT on Kovalev's.
So Kovalev is chopped liver now, and with his 35th birthday just weeks away? Then Bivol darn well better beat him, else it's going to look really bad.
Glad I'm not the only one who favors Kovalev in this match-up. I'm not saying Bivol can't beat Kovalev. But at this point in time, I'm definitely inclined to favor Krusher.
I do think he stops Kova. But what I am more sure of is that he decisively beats him, with or without a stoppage. Though I do lean towards Kova not going the distance.
Kova might as well make that fight next... Bivol is just going to get better, Kovas just going to get older, now is the time to try and welcome Bivol to the big leagues and see if he can shock him by possibly being thrown in with someone like Kova too early. But now is probably the time, imo. Before Bivol improves.