Video: Kovalev vs Ward - Preview & Prediction

Yep! That's the one.

 

I think he's going to always want to be quickly pivoting/shifting between being too close and being too far away. I think he can have success on the outside, but probably not for the long haul. Where I think he DOESN'T want to be - is standing idly at mid-range.

He will be most vulnerable I think at mid-range, but Ward is really gifted at switching from long to close range, while minimizing the time at mid-range and usually giving unfavorable punching angles when he is there. THIS is where I think Kovalev can find opportunities to exploit after he gets a sense of what Ward is doing. Sergey is actually the one I can see making a pivotal adjustment if Ward has great success with this early (that is, success transitioning between close and long range).

 

I thought Tua was going to smoke Lennox.

 

Ward opened as a slight favorite, correct?

 

Lennox fought a supremely disciplined and smart fight. But truth be told, looking back, Tua screwed himself when he sat on his ranking after the Rahman win. It wasn't his fault that the Holy-Lewis saga dragged out all of 1999, and that he had to wait until late 2000 to get his shot. But instead of continuing to stay active and/or take tougher match-ups, he lost his edge IMHO.

But at the time, I was fully embracing the "no way Lewis could avoid Tua's bombs for 12 rounds" mentality, which just goes to show how much I underrated a focused Lennox.

 

Oh, that's certainly a strong possibility.