It's ****. Why go back to B- level? To get his confidence back? Well if he's that mentally weak in the first place he should quit already. Fighting a dude that lost to Barrera... Come on!
Shabranskyy is no pushover. He has some skills (albeit not much, he was a kickboxer) and heart. Not very good chin though. This is a solid comeback fight, Kovalev has to take it seriously.
I don't buy this comeback BS. He hasn't gone away, he just lost! It happens.. Oscar lost to Mosley. So what! It's defeatist... Come back stronger not weaker! At least go for a Barrera...
This kind of reminds me of when Matthysse was coming back from his shock KO loss to Postol and everybody was like "that is that, he's done, stick a fork in him, at this point he'll even lose to Emanuel Taylor" and then lo and behold he utterly destroyed the "good but not great" Tranzformer (against whom Broner went life & death) just as he would have in his prime. Shabranskyy is the Emanuel Taylor of this equation. He's pretty good, but not great, and he's a big drop-off from the guy that beat Kovalev, as much as Taylor was a drop-off from Postol (if not more so). Kovalev will utterly destroy him, and prove wrong all the doubters now saying that he was left a "shell of himself" from the Ward rivalry or whatever. But then, he'll string together a few more decent B+ type victories (as, I suspect, Matthysse will) and then get a 3rd match with SOG (just because SOG has so few other big money options, barring Stevenson growing a pair, or some big star emerging at Cruiser and establishing themselves as lucrative gate draws in the American market, all in the very near future - which is unlikely) and get schooled again. Then, he'll probably be demoralized enough that you can say he's done and will from that point forth likely bring no more fire into the ring and only be endangering himself if he does take more assignments. (just as poor Matthysse, if he were to land a date with, say, Thurman, would get flipped upside down with his face used to mop the floor)
I'd like to see him somehow get his hands on the Stevenson/Alvarez winner(assuming the Pimp grows a pair) win and then go into a 3rd fight with Ward. That would at least assure that there's some value in it, considering it would be a unification with all the belts at stake. That said.. I'm not giving up complete hope in Kovalev. 3rd times the charm!
Actually in all seriousness, if he were to ultimately end up going 0-3 versus Ward, forget ending his career, that could launch Kovalev into a deep lifelong depression. He should probably stay away...but something tells me he's going to go Captain Ahab w/ this obsession..
First fight was a conditioning loss. and I do think Kovalev lost the first ward fight he was up by such a large margin that he should have just landed pitty pat shots instead of waiting for a ko shot that never came. second fight I assumed he'd corect his conditioning, but knew ward likely would correct things. Second fight it was like Kovalev knew he lost to Ward despite a lot of people thniking he won, and he looked awful, he looked out of shape and nervous as hell walking to to the ring, blew his load fast and was picked apart. JDJ claimed he had a dog**** camp. I think the Kovalev known as a monster is dead. hell he looked like dog **** vs Chilemba, that being said I think he comes back for a knockout win. but I doubt he ever returns to his former glory.
It's not a bad fight, it'll be entertaining for as long as it lasts and will end in a KO, most likely for Kovalev.
This will be a fun entertaining fight that will come to a violent conclusion yet some are still finding stuff to complain about.
"B.. Bu... But Kovalev ain't fighting again, doe! Hur hur hur! He done" Eat **** Turds Kovalev is far from done and will go after Stevenson and then Gvozdyk after Oleksandr gets the titles after Ward loses them... or vanquishes them. But Ward isn't sticking around 175. Too much upcoming talent. He'll try his stupid little Roy Jones run at HW against Bellew instead.
