Kovalev will exercise his rematch clause

MARK MY WORDS: Kovalev is toast. He lost his heart. Money made him soft. Kovalev took the only option he has.
Don't take the rematch, get shamed by the public as scared, no big money fights, become a gate keeper or retire.
Kovalev took the ONLY option he has, and now has to face a man that knocked him out brutally. He will go for the payday and not the win. Probably get KTFO again.

 

maybe he was ahead I didn't score it but he looked like ****

way too easy to hit, didn't throw with conviction, easy to counter

I watched it after the fall out and really don't have any positive takeaways on his behalf I think hes done

 

I agree with the money part totally. It ****s everyone up when they get enough of it. This is why boxing wise I give Floyd his respect. He kept his body in shape and he didn't let the money hurt his career.
Kovalev had never seen a million dollars before and once he got it who could tell him no?

 

One could argue he only has a few more fights in him and if he doesn't exercise the rematch clause he may not get another championship opportunity. However, as we all know, styles make fights and sometimes one fighter has another fighter's number. Vernon Forrest comes to mind over Shane Mosley. There are a lot of problematic fights out there for a lot of fighters. Maybe Kov would be wise to get that big payday with Adonis before Adonis checks out. You know that fight would draw a massive audience. If he loses again to Alvarez the Stevenson fight may evaporate.

 

And how to pace himself, as to not run out of gas.

 

I think he has something left in the tank. While he's had just as long of an amateur career as his pro, I can't say he is burned out. 10 years pro? Take the rematch, it will let him know where he stands among the top ranked. Any other fight would be that, just another fight.

 

I have faith in him

 

I guess nobody has noticed that Kovalev goes down easy. Single right hand from Ward and single right hand from Alvarez. His chin is suspect and every fighter out there has peeped that. I think that Alvarez stops him again. As a matter of fact, the wise choice is the rematch because at least the title will be on the line. Fighting someone else might just lead to him getting knocked out for nothing.

 

As much as I'd like to see Kovalev get back his title and fight Stevenson in unification, I have serious doubts he'll make it. Don't get me wrong - he still has power and some of his old skills. But his timing is off, his accuracy not good. He is gassing too easily to be able to put sustained pressure on Alvarez (that won him his most notable fights). To win, puncher's chance aside, he'd need to rebuild and I ain't sure he's got the determination, the iron self-discipline and dogged determination to do it any more. Hope I am proven wrong.

 

Hopefully the defeat lit a fire under him and he comes in better shape but I think it's too late. You can only burn the candle at both ends for so long.

 

His corner? You mean the guy he hired to replace Jackson? I heard he just lets Kovalev do whatever he wants instead of what he needs to train (endurance).

 

Why not, the knockout was brutal but it was a competitive fight up until then and Kovalev was edging most of the rounds and starting to look comfortable going into that one.

This division is fully of killers so most guys are gonna win some and lose some. Kovalev is 35 and if he wants to stay in the mix then he needs to take some risks. IMO he can beat Alvarez in a rematch, he could also get KO'd again but does he gain much more by going after Gvozdyk, Beterbiev, Bivol etc (I've left Stevenson and Jack out as unlikely fights to happen) so may as well go for the fight with a built in story to sell it.

He could reset and fight the likes of Murat, Barrera, Hooper on the fringes but he'd only get older whilst guys like Yarde will be coming through and making the division more competitive. With no time to waste this is probably his best option tbh.

 

He was giving Kovalev instructions that Kovalev followed for two or three rounds, but when he hurt Alvarez went right back to relying on his power and ignored instructions for the rest of the fight. Alvarez early in the fight was easily tagging Kovalev's body and Kovalev's coach told him to bend his knees and counter with is own shots to the body, which resulted in Alvarez easing up on the body shots. Also, the trainer was also motioning to Kovalev on where to have his hand to defend against the overhand right, but also told Kovalev to bend his knees, which Kovalev also didn't do.

If Kovalev listens to his corner and makes the proper adjustments he has a good chance at winning the rematch, but if he goes into the rematch with the same attitude and ignores instructions again he may as well retire, since Alvarez will knock him out again.

 

Who is training Kovalev? I hope it's not his trainer that said "Kovalev needs to retire" hope he got a new team.

 

Kovalev should work with Freddie.