Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal II & Dmitry Mikhaylenko vs. Karim Mayfield RBR

The first 4 rounds Pascal was in the fight. He had a good fight strategy. He started the first round throwing jabs, and utilizing the left hand more. Then he mixed in more hooks and started opening up on Kovalev, trying to set up the right hand. Pascal was doing Roy Jones moves in the 2nd and 3rd round and it actually worked, Pascal had a good series of punches on Kovalev in the 2nd round as part of a combination but then Pascal lost his balance and slipped.

We know Pascal is not a volume puncher, we know the punch stats were ridiculous, but Pascal’s punches were hurting Kovalev. Kovalev even slipped trying to chase Pascal in the 4th. But in the 5th round, Kovalev hurt Jean Pascal and JP nodded like “yeah good punch”. From there it became one sided.

Pascal did some good work before that, it was entertaining, but credit to Kovalev for landing that right hand in the 5th and staying on Pascal for the remainder of the rounds. Pascal is trying to implement Roy Jones moves into his game. Freddie Roach doesn’t seem to like it when Pascal does that stuff but that’s what worked for him. He did land some very good punches on Kovalev it just that Kovalev wasn’t giving Pascal many windows.

Pascal still was dangerous in the late rounds if he could revive himself. Kovalev seemed like he wasn’t too comfortable in there and one big punch by JP could have changed the fight. JP did a lot of things right in this fight. He came in there and took it to Kovalev, using his boxing skills. It didn’t work out but you’ve got to tip your hat to Jean Pascal for landing some big punches and trying to get Kovalev out of there.

Jean Pascal when he did the Roy Jones moves, he came close to pulling off those moves effectively, and then getting out before Kovalev countered. If he could have avoided those right hands in the 5th round JP had a chance to land more big punches on Kovalev.

 

We got everything we wanted tonight from the 2-fight HBO telecast...

A quality opening bout with an exciting finish.

A true battle of titans with a personal rivalry overflowing into the battle!

Kovalev and Ward talking trash in the ring to each other

Corona Girls (where Tecate at?)

Hopkins on the telecast not talking about himself, maybe

Roy Jones Jr. not on the telecast because Hopkins is

Roy Jones Jr. walking to the ring means he gets KO'd cold, at least

...

OK. OK. Maybe we didn't get all of what we wanted.

Well. Maybe we didn't get any of what we wanted.

Um. Actually maybe this was one of the worst hyped HBO broadcasts in a small while?

 

This fight was very similar to the 1st fight, where Kovalev relatively dominated.

Except in this fight Pascal did much, much worse.

 

Stole the thoughts right out of my head.

I guess Tecate/Corona spoils us well.