Who's the most durable guy Kovalev has faced?

well bet on the late stoppage win. :hey

 

Can we see the proof of this so called bet?

 

Cleverly has a good chin - I can't recall him ever being wobbled or hurt before but Kovalev just annihilated him.

 

It was Simakow, who was actually battling it out with Kova. With a very unfortunate result.
And like said, Cleverly tried to tough it out too, only that obviously didn't work.

Agnew got dropped a couple of times and basically did next to nothing to prevent himself from losing, only surviving and trying to prevent himself to take the big punches.

 

Sima.


edit: Rob beat me to it.


He was dropped by Lepikhin but that is no shame. Lepikhin was (is?) a blue chip prospect who is still unbeaten today but got sidelined for a few years before he could build up much of a name. Plus, after getting dropped Simakov actually rallied and came on strong enough in the second half to make it close even with the KD against him.

 

Nathan Cleverly is a very tough guy. Tyson Fury opened up on Nathan and apparently gave him a bit of a hiding in sparring, but Nathan didn't go down.
To blow Cleverly away in 3 rounds (he shouldn't have been sent out for round 4) is extremely impressive.

 

Nobody is calling him delicate but Simakov was just tougher.

 

If Kovalev even manages to floor Hopkins, that would be impressive.

 

I watched it live, unfortunately. :verysad

I can understand the impulse to not want to look at it knowing the result.

You heard, I take it, about how they removed him from the ring in an orange body-bag as opposed to a stretcher? (probably all the local commission had available, they were clearly unprepared for the eventuality of someone being in that severe a condition...)

You could tell even as they brought him out that it was bad. It threw a damper on the whole rest of the card (main event was Provodnikov vs. Corley) - there was just a pall over the rest of the day even before the news broke that he was in a coma, and that he eventually passed...if you saw what happened, you knew in your gut already what news was coming.

The shots Kovalev was landing, in combination... and Simakov just soaked it all up. Bravest and saddest thing you'll ever see in a ring.