"I did spend some time with Kovalev in the ring. Nobody hits harder than Stevenson"

I think George is probably telling the truth but to be fair him and Stevenson are friends now and I very much doubt Kovalev was trying to tear his head off in sparring like Stevenson was in their fight.


Donovan, in your last televised bout, which was on WealthTV, you came up short in a brutal battle with Adonis “Superman” Stevenson. What happened in that bout?

It was a gruelling twelve round war. Both of us were hurt, but in the fifth round he broke my ribs. I broke one and fractured another. I couldn’t breathe the entire fight. In the fifth round when he put me down, I couldn’t even lift my head, but I looked up and saw my fiancé and my mother and I didn’t want to quit. I’m not a quitter. It was actually written up as round of the year.

What is you relationship like now with Stevenson?

It was a great fight and Stevenson and I have a great relationship now. It’s kinda like what happened with Gatti and Ward. After a brutal war like that you grow to appreciate each other. I just spent a couple weeks in Detroit sparring with him to get ready for the fight with Lopez, so that was like rounds 13 to 80 (laughs). There isn’t any better southpaw to get sparring with than Stevenson, and for the last three weeks I realized how good he is and why I’m not at super middleweight anymore (laughs).



Obviously both Kovalev and Stevenson hit ridiculously hard but it's hard to get a true gauge of their power due to their differing styles. Stevenson looks to take you out with well timed deadly precision strikes, whereas Kovalev relies more on trying to bludgeon you into submission with powerful combinations.

Also Stevenson's bigger than Kovalev at 175 and I'd be surprised if he wasn't at least as heavy on fight night as Kovalev is back when he used to campaign down at 168 and was beating up on 168 pounders. I think Stevenson's left hand is probably the most powerful punch out of their respectful arsenals, but that said I really can't see Donovan George or Tony Bellew lasting very long against Kovalev at all. I think he'd blast both of them out within four or five rounds.