Unanswerable really. If this is the sluggish & sloppy version from Storm 1 (and his rematch form proved eventually in hindsight to just have been a flukey last hurrah) then nah, wouldn't give a ton of credit. If this is an "on" Krusher, though, past-prime or not then of course anybody would deserve credit for defeating (let alone stopping) him.
I wouldn't feel confident one bit in predicting the outcome of a Kovalev fight. 4-5 years ago, that Kovalev, id have picked by brutal KO. But its not that Kovalev and there has already been smoke coming out of his camp again, which if youre a Kovalev fan, is pretty ****ing bad regardless of how inexperienced his opponent is. Yarde still knows how to punch, and if Kovalev relapsed IN CAMP again, hes not gonna be able to take big shots.
This is a 50/50. Kovalev is prime anymore, but he has the experience over Yarde and he is champion. If Yarde wins, he should get credit.
I for one would give Yarde credit (assuming it's not controversial and given how it's in Russia I doubt that Yarde would benefit from controversy). I like Kovalev as fighter but I'd welcome a Brit among the top LHWs
Sure he will get the props. Especially in Kovalevs hometown. I expect Kovalev to box him like he did Alvarez, but who really knows if Kovalev has even trained for this fight.....?
A loss by Kovalev and especially a stoppage & his all time rating===which was high a few years ago==plummits worse than the dow jones the last 10 days.