I think we saw prime Kovalev in 2014

Well. If Ward is out of prime.. Then so is Kovalev. But I don't buy either claim.

 

Kovalev is not out of his prime, he is just difficult and does not always train properly. It is on record that this was the case in the first Pascal fight. He then only had a 3 week camp with JDJ for Chilemba and there are rumors he had personal problems that seriously effected his preparation for Ward.

Kovalev is a difficult and moody guy who is hard to train, perhaps one could say he is wasting his prime through poor preparation and dealing with personal issues. Hopefully this Ward debacle is a wake up call for him and he starts training properly again and gets his personal life in order because time waits for none of us.

 

Kovalev does not need to rely on reflexes like slicksters such as Roy or Toney etc.

He is a powerhouse and that power will never leave him. People will always be wary of trading with him as his power could turn their lights off at any moment. If he could tag Andre Ward then everyone is at risk of getting sparked out.

 

I told friends that there is a possibility of kovalev already being passed his physical prime. Watch his older fights on yt that were just before and slightly after the Boone 2 fight. His speed and reflexes just look much faster and sharper to me. Now was he more skilled than right now? No. He's added more wrinkles to his game since then .

 

He slowed down so much in the 2nd of his last fight he just gave rounds away. just presumed he was too focused on the ward fight but even though I thought he beat ward he did the same again, ward was able to win rounds a bit too easy rather than him wrestling (no pun intended) the points away from the Russian.

 

Morales was completely and I mean completely shot to pieces. And still almost beat prime Maidana.

Great fighters are so unbelievably good thst even when they slow down they're still almost better than everybody else.

Kovalev is 33. Once you get to 35 it's basically impossible to not have speed, stamina, reflex, etc decline.

I think in theory a fighter peaks at age 26-29. Before the physical declines take hold. But that assumes they don't make drastic improvements technically.

Great fighters like Jones Jr, Duran, Frazier, Hagler, Morales, Barrera, Pacquiao, Foreman, Toney, Monzon, Robinson, etc. Basically all the greats peaked H2H during this time frame.

I think it's basically obvious that Kovalev at 33 doesn't pump as much oxygen or have the reflexes he did at 28. The question is to what degree and to what extent have his physical declines affected his boxing ability.

 

This. The whole out of their prime garbage being spewed on here is sickening! These two guys are in their prime PERIOD! Ward imho is still working off a bit of ring rust as seen by his slow start and then improvement in the latter half of the fight.

 

Overall boxing prime. Yes both are at their apex or close to it. Physical prime? No, they are 32 and 33. They're not the same as they were at 28.

 

Nah, he's just faced stylistic threats.

 

And they werent the same at 28 to where they were at at 25. The decline thing applies to guys that have taken a lot of punishment whicn neither guy has previously. Are they at their absolute peak? No but theyre pretty darn close hence prime. Prime isnt about peak its about a time period.

 

Decline isn't just about punishement. Taking punishment accelerates a fighters decline. But at 33 and 32 a fighter has physically declined.

Its debatable as to when a fighter peaks physically. I'd say 25-29. Fighters under 25 tend to lack physicality and fighters over 30 seem to have lost some workrate and speed.

 

Agreed.

I think both Kovalev and Ward (and likely GGG) are on the downside.

Can't stay young forever.

I sincerely thought in watching Kovalev-Ward that Ward is not nearly the same fighter as he was during the Super Six. Slower feet, slower hands, less accurate. Still a damn good fighter, though, and so is Kovalev (and GGG).

 

This is a great point and exactly why i believe Floyd has been using PEDs. How do you show so little decline through your 30s?!!! I always suspected it but IV gate convinced me that something was up.