Kovalev: "I was tired after the 6th. I had little time to prepare"

Ruiz is in his prime and he had an easy 5-rounds fights with Dimitrenko. Kovalev is well past his prime, has well documented alcohol and work ethic problems and had a surprisingly tough 11-rounds fight with Anthony Yarde. But of course, he could have done better even at this age had he been as dedicated to boxing as Floyd Mayweather was

 

No no im not disputing that he shouldn't of let himself go. But back to back camps and fights at 36 against possibly best pound for pound ( although a drug cheat) is too much to ask

 

How so?
Kovalev was in peak condition just two months ago. So which is it; was he overtrained or underpreapeared?

 

Id lean more to overtrained. There was nothing there, he seemed zapped. Weight making didnt help obviously either plus hes over the top the last 2 years

 

There might be an argument there.
But no one really knows.
But what you can´t say is that he didn´t have time to prepare. Kovalev was already in shape and he also had some time to recover.
How long does one need to come up with a gameplan?

The reality is that Kovalev is just physically done at this point. Yarde almost capitalized on it so it shouldn’t be a shocker that Canelo was able to do so.
No need for excuses about lack of time to properly prepare.

 

No either way no room for excuses

 

Yarde nearly did the same thing. Canelo's accurate punch did what Yarde couldn't do.

 

He shouldn’t have taken the fight then. Payday or not, his health/career should come first.

 

Kovalev stayed in idle yet his tank emptied

 

Kovalev had been fighting the first three years of his career for free. Then for peanuts when he signed with Main Events. His first relatively big purse was probably for the first Ward fight. For the second Ward fight Kovalev agreed just to take a percentage of the PPV, and it was a flop... Allegedly, he received quite a lot (thanks to the Russian oligarch) for the Yarde fight and now he was supposed to let 10-12 millions go? Kovalev has a wife and two kids plus dozens of relatives back in Russia. So he took the fight... Maybe it was a deal with his conscience, yes. But not in a sense that the fight was fixed, but simply because Kovalev took it, understanding that it will be very difficult for him to win it.

 

Kovalev is done at the top level. He can stick around and maybe beat some Top 20 guys - as long as his confidence is not completely shot - but anything with half decent power and stamina will quickly go for the kill.

 

Kov has just been ko'd by a Mexican midget (albeit a very skilled one) who hadn't ko'd a bona fide MW in years (Krystal Khan and Rocky from Stocky do not count).

He should retire or as others have said he will be going down the very sad RJJ route.

 

If Canelo was just following him around why didn't Kovalev threw at least 1 hard punch? He fought like he was afraid to рiss Canelo off.
Kovalev should retire after being beat up by a roided up midget.
If you are afraid to throw punches then just retire, it's over.
Kovalev embarresed himself and ruined his legacy after this fight.

 

that’s logical but Kovalev was vastly underpaid during his whole career and the situation with his purse for Ward 2 was blasphemous.. Part of the Canelo contract was that he would get two 7 figure fights on DAZN after so he will definitely be fighting a bum then Bivol and I can’t say I blame him..

 

The calculation was spot on