Lederman once suggested that Ward just go up to Kovalev and beat him up.

If you can get on the inside for Kovalev then he will just try tie up and try to fight again on the outside. if Kovalev had one flaw it's he is not very good on the inside. Getting on the inside you Risk dropping to the Canvas like Ward did though.

 

When Kov gets full range on the straight right it's a knee buckler, only thing is it never stopped Ward like it did others and that was the finisher for Kovalev in the rest of the match. He never has a plan B. If you can take his punch he is done.

 

Meh. Slava was landing on Kovalev quite a bit for how much punishment he was taking. If Kovalev thinks he can walk through Beterbiev like that then he might want to rethink that. Beterbiev has been evolving into a much more economical fighter. He started his pro career willing to take one to give one then in the Prieto fight he was able to punish Prieto without giving Prieto a chance to land anything back. Then against Koeling it was a one sided boxing lesson with Beterbiev showing the discipline to stick to a gameplan for 12. I know this fight was only two rounds but Kovalev looked to have regressed in this regard. His handspeed, power, reaction time. All there. But he was sloppy.

 

Ward is a Master of the inside though. and to be fair the first fight was razor close. the second fight Kovalev went into the fight with a bad game plan of knocking out Ward within 3-4 rounds. he fell apart like Lemieux did vs Rubio, he should've fired JDJ earlier, but he DIDNT because JDJ was going to join ward.

 

I agree with your beterbiev opinion. the Kovalev fight he beat Shabransky in the areas where Shabransky had chances. and I'm not as big on Kovalev as most are here.

 

Kovalev had better timing and handspeed. Kovalev was countering Slava's lead shots which prevented Slava from ever landing hard enough to get Kovalev's respect. Don't get me wrong. Kovalev completely outclassed Slava.

 

If Kovalev would have sat back boxed and been boring he could have made it look like his fight vs bhop. I do think he got carried away he was knocked back from a jab early and nearly tripped over his own feets on a jab in round 2. he was never perfect but if you let him extend his punches he had good power, so does stevenson.

 

He didn't have to bother focusing on defence or resetting an attack because he could see Shabranksy was right there squared up in front of him to hit. Of course Beterbiev won't be so easy to find like that, but Beterbiev will have to get inside, and with his slower foot speed and shorter length, that he needs to be set to punch, in addition to the bombs that await as he tries against Kovalev that'll be a monumental challenge. I expect Beterbiev to shell up and maybe not give Kovalev a chance to land much early, but Kovalev will be allowed to outbox him, and may put some hurt on him as he manages to open him up. Kovalev will not walk inside and trade, we should well know that. A guy who should be a more complete boxer and harder for Kovalev to find would be Barrera. Hard to see Barrera winning, but he deserves the crack, it would be good to see, and it really should've happened tonight.

 

Either way Barerra and Beterbiev are both very competitive fights for Kovalev.

 

kovalev annihilates barrera.

 

Barrera was supposed to have fought Kovalev, but backed out, he refused to fight Kovalev.....................Barrera will have to fight Bivol next. SOB's inside game is holding, wrestling, elbows, headbutts, low blows, etc. SOB can't beat a good fighter without cheating.........................Lederman had Kovalev winning the first fight....................Tony Weeks allowed SOB to land low blows.........................most know what happened, only the brain washed SOB worshipers think SOB won, when he cheated. Boxing rules apply to everyone.............

 

JDJ is not the guy in the ring fighting,blaming him has always been a cop out for Kovalev. He has been boxing too long to blame a trainer. Amir Khan does that all the time and what changed for him after switching trainers 3 times?