We all know Kovalev does not like it to the body so it is hard to understand how that wasn't in their game plan earlier. Yarde's only real success came from the consistent body attacks and he deviated away from that once he got Kovalev in trouble, his corner should have kept pushing him to keep going to the body.
There was no tactical instruction from the corner, only words of encouragement., and there was very little of that in the first few rds. Yarde said in an interview, they dont study the opponent, they would rather work it out when they get in the ring. Like youve stated, it's well known he don't like body shots, that would of been a a great bit of info to take into the ring with u
I agree he should have forced it earlier especially with jabs to the body but it’s easier said than done. He was very wary of Kovalev’s right hand and for good reason. I think the plan was to take Kovalev late and then break him down to the body in the second half. That’s what happened but Yarde ran out of steam himself. Contrary to what a lot of people are arguing I think the game plan was actually decent last night. He just got his pacing wrong. Maybe a hard spar would have served him well in that respect.
It seemed more to me like he was running out of ideas and knew he had to force something. Though he was competitive he wasn’t really winning rounds. I gave him three including the 7th and 8th. I’m not convinced another 20 seconds in the 8th would’ve made that much difference either. He was completely gassed after missing so wildly he nearly went through the ropes. How Kovalev didn’t go down in that round though, I don’t know. Took some huge shots.
Did he get the pacing wrong? He didn’t seem to get out of first gear until the 8th. I don’t know if it was simply down to being outboxed or whatever but I don’t know how he could’ve slowed himself down anymore.
He did get the pacing wrong he said so himself after the fight. Caused by the plethora of needless hard left hooks he was throwing which were missing by a mile.
He was worried about Kovalev’s right hand which is why he wasn’t going down stairs early. They actually had the very clever tactic of trying to counter the right with the left hook- it would have been interesting if he landed one of those really flush. Easy to say from outside, but I was screaming at the TV for him to stay on the body and to leave his head alone In the 8th as he would have finished Kovalev.. Yarde got his pacing wrong, but it’s more than understandable considering all the circumstances and the hard jabs he was taking.
You need to use the jab to set shots up to the body. In-turn, Kovalev’s jab stopped him setting his own work up. He eventually got Kovalev to the body (3 times) but that was when Kovalev was fatigued.
I'm not sure about that. He was head hunting in the first and at the beggining of the second you could see Kovalev had been told to keep his right hand higher. He did then try a few and I'm sure he hurt him a bit to the body in the 2nd.
Just watched the fight. Truthfully I think the answer is belief. Although he did ok, his work rate was very low for the first few rounds. His confidence grew from the 4th onwards. Kovalev was also very sharp behind his jab so landing wasn't easy.
