Did Ward Ruin Kovalev's Career?

Ward did ruin Kov career.
Kov wasn't a draw, period.
Always the B side. Had to travel to Canada to get paid well vs Pascal.

Now with no belts, he will be lucky to get a 250k purse.

His camp is in ruins.
His promoter in tatters.

If Kov can get Stevenson that would be a great comeback purse wise.

 

Well the judges in the first fight really cost him IMO. It was a fight the vast majority of people thought he won where he didn't get the nod and everything went to **** from there.

It's a pretty ****ed up situation tbh and a warning for other fighters planning on heading stateside - it's not the true blue home of the fair shake that our American friends would have us believe it is.

 

That can't be assessed until Kovalev's career is over.

 

I really don't think he did, a lot of it he did himself (As in Kovalev).

He was the one who trash talked JDJ in the buildup, he was the one who shoved him under the bus.

You can't pretend to be a 1 man show and then blame everyone else. And I quote "Everything in training, I do myself, all the preparations etc, JDJ is just a mitt holder."

Lmfao.

I will say that the reason why he's not even close to a draw is because

1. He says a great deal of insensitive things that are offensive to a lot of people

2. He doesnt know how to play boxing politics. Even after a fight, he still shows no respect ala Pascal 2. Not sure how he thinks he can gain any fans.

And much more

 

Yeah it's weird that Ward is so well looked after as he's not a draw. I really think that the first result can be attributed to the US not being able to accept not having one of the worlds top fighters amongst its ranks and if someone like a Mayweather was still around as p4p number 1 or you guys had a Tyson the character then he wouldn't have got the nod.

America needs champions to maintain its sense of prestige and Ward is carrying that at the minute. Perhaps Spence might lighten the load in future - I hope so as I really don't like Ward's ugly foul laden style.

 

I couldn't agree more. Andre Ward is a master at mind games and he played Kovalev like a fool and set him up beautifully. Kovalev thought he was playing checkers but in reality he was playing chess with a grand master. Ward was literally two steps ahead of him the whole time. He had him so wound up he didn't know if he was coming or going from The Hagler War hat that Kovalev used to psych himself up, the storming out of the press conference to all the leaks about his camp. He's a genius in that aspect. He said he was going to do it and he did it to perfection.

 

Agree.

 

Sergey purse vs Mohammedi was 750k
Not including Russia Tv money

Now that's low, considering his 3 titles

 

I still have doubts that Kovalev can bounce back from this.
He's one of the best fighters in the world, and he lost twice to one of the best boxers in the world. Both times controversial, but he won't fight a third time.
Stevenson will never fight Kovalev, because he's holding the belt hostage and I doubt that Cleverly has the balls to fight him. Maybe he has to make the step to the Crusierweights, because the Russians dominate that division.
Kovalev vs Lebedev would be fun.

 

Rather than fighting back he decided to feel sorry for himself and blamed others.

What he should have done is punch Ward in the balls real ****ing hard and carry on.

But some fighters just aren't built that way.

I think he is done and gets knocked out in his next fight because he cannot be bothered training.

 

I don't think Ward did anything special at all in regards to pre fight mind games or anything like that. I think the reason Kovalev was kinda mentally not there in the fight was because of Ward's style more than anyhting, some guys fold mentally when they're in with an opponent who outskills them, maybe they feel like they're not in control of things anymore and that unsettles them.

 

As for him bouncing back, honestly it wouldn't surprise me if this is the last we've seen of prime Kovalev, at the end it really looked like Ward took Kovalev's soul in there, Kovalev will not have the same invincible mentality heading forward and that's tough. Not to mention Kovalev is what, 34 now anyways? His physical prime is nearly over anyway. Couple that with possible promoter issues as well as other things, he'll probably be out of the game for a good while.