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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - I can’t be the only one, can I?
Though I sat down like a good HBO subscriber Saturday night and awaited tumult as Sergey Kovalev approached the ring on the Jersey seashore, I walked away 30 or so minutes later with something less than the post-apocalyptic afterglow I’d been led to believe I’d experience.
I know he stretched his consecutive stoppages-in-victories streak to 12. I know he was never in danger of losing the fight, in spite of blood over both eyes and a visit to the canvas from a nasty low blow. And I know his opponent leaned more toward Josh Clottey than Mike Tyson when it came to engagement.
But still, somehow I expected more.
Given that Agnew came into the ring with a middling stoppage history, only 13 KOs in 26 wins, against opposition that can hardly be deemed world-class in nature, I figured he’d provide a negligible level of dissuasion to a guy who’d been tagged coming in with words like animal, beast and monster.
Based on the ferocity with which Kovalev had erased Nathan Cleverly and Ismayl Sillakh – both of whom had arrived with at least equal (and in Cleverly’s case, far more) fanfare – I actually thought I’d leaned conservative in forecasting the Russian would be chatting up Max Kellerman inside of nine minutes.
Not only did it end up closer to 21 ticks before “Krusher” got to deliver the Adonis-baiting line that became the event’s most memorable takeaway, but he got hit enough times and looked vulnerable enough in spots to make think he’s something inferior to the Ivan Drago clone he’d been billed. [Click Here To Read More]
Though I sat down like a good HBO subscriber Saturday night and awaited tumult as Sergey Kovalev approached the ring on the Jersey seashore, I walked away 30 or so minutes later with something less than the post-apocalyptic afterglow I’d been led to believe I’d experience.
I know he stretched his consecutive stoppages-in-victories streak to 12. I know he was never in danger of losing the fight, in spite of blood over both eyes and a visit to the canvas from a nasty low blow. And I know his opponent leaned more toward Josh Clottey than Mike Tyson when it came to engagement.
But still, somehow I expected more.
Given that Agnew came into the ring with a middling stoppage history, only 13 KOs in 26 wins, against opposition that can hardly be deemed world-class in nature, I figured he’d provide a negligible level of dissuasion to a guy who’d been tagged coming in with words like animal, beast and monster.
Based on the ferocity with which Kovalev had erased Nathan Cleverly and Ismayl Sillakh – both of whom had arrived with at least equal (and in Cleverly’s case, far more) fanfare – I actually thought I’d leaned conservative in forecasting the Russian would be chatting up Max Kellerman inside of nine minutes.
Not only did it end up closer to 21 ticks before “Krusher” got to deliver the Adonis-baiting line that became the event’s most memorable takeaway, but he got hit enough times and looked vulnerable enough in spots to make think he’s something inferior to the Ivan Drago clone he’d been billed. [Click Here To Read More]
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