Depending on court well we'll see. He definitely had his best bod last weigh in Oh me oh my Kovalev was looking tot. Totally six pack Abercrombe model (No homo)
Mid 30s athletically u are past your best.. This is obvious in sport. High ring IQ, ring savvy & an ability to adapt can negate this to an extent but yes he's fading.. It's natural.
I have noticed that nobody past like age 33 or so is throwing a high volume of power punches. I think the body just cannot maintain that level of activity in the mid 30s and beyond. Remember when Pacquiao was launching avalanches of punches in his mid 20s to early 30s? Aaron Pryor threw what seemed like a million punches when he was 27 against Arguello. Even Bernard Hopkins back in the 90s could maintain a solid workrate. You go and watch fights of Hopkins in his actual prime back in the mid to late 90s. And hes a completely different fighter. You wont even believe its him in there. Shane Mosley would gas out really fast in the 2010s but when he fought DLH he just kept on chugging.
Your body can look fantastic all the way from 35-50 if you train and diet good. But that doesnt mean your stamina, reflexes, speed and power wont go. Actually a lot of guys have their best looking bodies from 35-40 because their skin has thinned slightly by that point and causes their muscles to really pop. Bernard Hopkins was 36 against Trinidad and he looked like a chiseled god in that fight. But he was already slower and less active by that time.
Obviously. But with Buddy McGirt encouraging him to shore up his defense, fall back on and utilized his exemplary skillset footwork and jab to great effect, and use his power as a deterrent and to dictate the pace of the match, as opposed to going in like a young crazy kid guns blazing going for the KO, and open himself up to pulling repeated Lemieux-Rubio like amateur hour **** ups. Kovalev can now remain on top for maybe another 2 or 3 years, even as he is in decline. Manny, Floyd and Wlad were or are in decline, and they remain top tier fighters, that's no easy out for anyone who isn't the elite of the elite, and the same may end up applying to the Krusher.
Yes, but Kovalev doesnt seem like the guy to skip out on top level young fighters. Mayweather was done with top young fighters by 2008. And Manny by 2010. And you bet your ass that was by design. Neither of them wanted a single piece of Thurman or Brook when their abilities began to erode. When Wlad fought a young top level guy like Fury he was badly exposed by Furys reflexes and speed. And he was unable to hold off off a charging Joshua too. Though he gave a tremendous effort at 41, it's a little embarrassing for Joshua's sake that a guy in his 40s could cause him to dig that deep. If Kovalev wants to feast on faded or B level guys he could be a champion for 3 or 4 years down the line. But I'm afraid his days of taking on and defeating the best young hungry lions at 175 are past him.
I get what you're saying and you could be right, but stylistically, I still think he has it in him to beat a guy like Bivol and Beterbiev, make no mistake Alvarez isn't as skilled as either of them but he may be tougher and I can almost guarantee he's more durable. The fact that the outcomes of those matches should be no foregone conclusion, at least in the minds of any logical fan, tells me that maybe they aren't past him.
A cautious Sergey is a dangerous Sergey. Skill, speed, good reactions plus the advantage of serious power from distance. Stylistically Sergey is a tough puzzle for anyone, the Steamroller included
hes fine, no decline, stop scaremongering. Its just hes fighting at a higher level regularly than when in his 20s, you KO everyone now.
No longer the KRUSHER with the all out trying to put pure damage on his opponents, his seek and destroy days seem over. But no one can beat him from the outside, proof how good a boxer he is.
If he keeps at the end of the jab and cross, you're in big trouble. He beat ward a master boxer in the 1st fight by jabbing his head off all fight, ward landed some good stuff later on, to beat kovalev u need to get inside and rough him up. On the outside he's a machine.
