I reckon we will find out. And I reckon that Ward will defeat him. I wonder how many fights they give Ward at 175 to "acclimate" to the weight. I'd love to see this fight so hopefully they stay in great form until their now seemingly inevitable clash.
I used to think Ward wins but since then Kovalev has looked like a real beast. I think Kovalev would win mid rounds now, Ward would look good early on maybe even dominage but would get clipped at some point and right now I've no reason to believe he can take a pinch from Kovalwv.
So because I pick one fighter to win, I am showing an inability to learn? Learn from what? Their first fight? Tell me more, Nostradamus. Tell me more about that time you picked Geale to beat Golovkin (yes, I still remember).
Sounds about right. A guy with the skill to outbox Hopkins, the power to stop Pascal could stop a guy with feather fists and shaky whiskers pretty much whenever he chose (Hopkins tongue out rage induced KRUSHER could probably take him out in a round) However, a combination of Ward's brilliant defense and Sergey toying with him like a cat with a mouse would see it last
Other than being a big puncher, Kovalev does nothing better. Nothing. He'll look foolish against professor Ward.
No troll CST80 picked Geale to win, I killed him off, although he wants out of his grave sometimes. Kovalev shut out Hopkins by outboxing him, he stopped Pascal but outboxed him beforehand as well, neither of those two are easy to outbox, and you'll say he used his power....yes he did along with his skills and he'll use his power against Ward as well, and if Hopkins and Pascal couldn't stand up to it Ward won't either. Kovalev isn't that easy to outbox, he's more skilled than Kessler, Froch, Abraham and maybe even Chad Dawson especially the drained one Ward fought, they'll both be in against the most skilled fighter they've ever faced.
SOB Ward will use his head, he will insist on all the money, have the fight in his home town with his personal referee, judges, boxing commission, etc., however, Kovalev is too powerful for Ward and will knock that cheating SOB out!!!
So then what is ridiculous about picking either to win? Your problem is that you are equating Ward to Hopkins and Pascal. I currently rank Kovalev higher than Ward P4P due to resume and my qualifications for the term P4P in my own opinion. But that doesn't mean I fancy Kovalev to outbox him. Because I don't think he will be able to outbox Ward. If Ward loses, it'll be sparked out early. And there is a decent chance of that happening. Otherwise, I'd expect him to win. And I do expect that to happen. That's all.
Kov is a completely different level to anyone Ward has fought as a pro. No matter what Ward does it doesn't go 10 rounds. He also gets outboxed by Kov easily along the way.
I'll always pick Kova in this. I'd pick rounds 5-6. Simply because this is when Kova is going to be at his most energetic and dangerous. Simply because Kova has never really looked beatable since he hit the top of the sport. He's vicious as hell man. This is THE fight I'm looking forward to the most. Because I don't see any other challenge for Kova, bar Beterbiev, who I also pin as a solid challenge for Ward. With Kova being my absolute #1 favourite in the sport right now, I really want to see him ascend the ranks and hit ATG status. Even if it's just ATG @ LHW
I dont even see Ward as a challenge for Sergey. Someone who doesnt have the power to make Sergey wary and doesnt have a great chin stands next to no chance of surviving Ward's a highly intelligent guy and realises this himself. It's a fight he knows he stands no chance of winning. And so he has to try and find ways of making it look like he's NOT ducking Sergey. Staying away from 175 as long as humanly possible while quietly feigning some interest for a future fight is one way. Making a lot of noise about a middleweight is another However..... a duck's a duck!