ward by decision. kovalev couldnt knock out 49 year old hopkins because of his superior defense, distance, and foot movement, ward is a 20 year younger version of hopkins and remember kovalev didn't look great in his last fight, is he slipping? fight will be a boring chess match with ward fighting a crafty fight pulling out every veteran trick in the book to frustrate and ultimately break kovalev down, more from frustration than anything else.
He didn't KO Hopkins because he didn't have to, why risk it? But he was seconds away from a stoppage in the 12th when he wanted to put a cherry on top of his masterful performance, many refs would have stopped it. Now imagine he isn't winning the match with Ward comfortably and Kovalev goes all out in say the 8th or 9th like he did with B-Hop, would Ward be able to weather that storm? I think not.
kovalevs power will be sapped by the 9th round from wards clinch and body work. wards boxing iq is superior, he will win a 12 round decision.
Who said Kovalev has to do damage after the 9th round? I'm pretty sure he lands in the first 9 rounds and lands hard.
I've yet to see anyone brave enough to attempt to get that close to Kovalev to clinch and attempt body work, what makes you think Ward will be? Or could? His IQ may be superior, but Kovalev will knock that IQ right out of his ****ing head.
getting in close and keeping the fight there will be one of the keys to victory for ward. ward is a master at clinches, uppercuts and body shots on the inside.
These guys can't process the idea that Kovalev will eventually land on Ward. I mean at some he will punch Andre Ward. Its going to happen at some point and it will most likely be more than Ward can handle.
After the last 3 Fights that Ward has had the Jump up to a Fighter the Class of Kovalev is going to be enormous......Kovalev Win's.!!!!
