Kovalev's Whiskers: Suspect to Say the Least

Vodka breath & a red nose

 

his chin is decent... but he will be getting Ko'd again tomorrow night

 

This comment needed a separate thread indeed. I'll go open a new thread.

Subject: Kovalev will get knocked out!
Comment: You heard it.

 

His chin is okay, he's only been stopped once by punches to the face.

I'm more concerned about the vulnerability of his testicles. All Alvarez needs is a dodgy referee like Ward had, and he'll be free to punch Sergey down there.

 

I thought Kovalev was clearly winning.

 

So many different aspects go into consideration regarding a fighter's chin, and every fighter is different so some aspects that apply to certain boxers don't to others and so on. I think the Kovalev up to Kovalev-Ward I had a very good chin, maybe even great. After that loss though, he spiraled out of control in so many ways and they all had significant affects on his "chin." He just couldn't take the loss. He never took L's good, look back to his amateur career and his two razor close defeats to Artur Beterbiev. To this day he is still bitter about those losses and is in denial. But at the same time, regardless of whether he won or not, Beterbiev throws fire, and Kovalev took those shots fine and did from everyone else he faced in his long and distinguished amateur career besides one fight against Abbos Atoev (sp?) from I think Uzbekistan. But that shot that put him down was as perfect a shot as any that a fighter could land, Atoev was a short and stocky fighter, I think 5'9, and he got inside on Kovalev and landed a monster overhand with insane leverage on it. It was a shot that would have put down anyone.

Kovalev has faced numerous boxers with murderous power and took all of their shots without blinking besides the Atoev amateur fight. After Ward I the combination of his alcohol abuse, denial, stubborn and dismissive attitude with his trainers, cracks in his self confidence, and downright pathetic attitude and training efforts all created the perfect storm that pretty much ruined his chin permanently. It will never be the same. Add in his stamina issues, which have now been compromised ten fold because of the aforementioned issues, and any time he steps into the ring with an elite LHW that can weather his early onslaught -- which also magnifies and intensifies his mental weakness and the affects it has on his performance from then on -- and he is a surefire spectacular KO waiting to happen. Oh, and also add to the fact that he always had HIGHLY underrated athleticism, which has since deteriorated at an alarming clip because of his outside the ring lifestyle and pathetic training habits, and he is now a fighter that can't maintain his preferred distance in a fight past 4 rounds. Before the first Ward fight, he was a MASTER at controlling distance -- as good as anyone in boxing while in his prime if not the absolute best at it in boxing.

In his prime he was absolutely a dominant, murderous punching, incredibly skilled, technically superb, and athletic monster who had everything a fighter needed to become an ATG, including an extremely durable chin which had been constantly checked for years dating back to his AM days and held up to everything thrown his way against some absolutely fearsome punchers. But, it was his intangibles or rather lack of that held him back and blocked him from reaching his full potential, and it was those same intangibles that played the most significant part in the overnight rapid deterioration of his chin. Tomorrow night, Alvarez is gonna snooze him so emphatically it will be one of ESPN Sports center's Top 10 plays from Saturday.

He goes from taking shots fine throughout his entire career from big punchers without blinking to getting stone cold wrecked by Andre Ward and Eleider Alvarez, who are both excellent boxers and who both have underrated punching power, but have nowhere near the power of many opponents Kovalev faced throughout his career who landed plenty of clean shots on the Krusher but didn't even get his attention.

 

Kova gasses and leaves himself open to huge shots that would take out most fighters.

He's not fit enough from R6-12

 

I hope you are right mate but I have had doubts about Kov's chin for a while. I think it's weak.

 

Kov should go all out early and starch him before he gets tagged himself, he needs to gamble in my opinion.