By Victor Salazar
New York, New York - John David Jackson has been around the sport of boxing for his whole life as a boxer and trainer. He has a tall task on his hands when he prepares his best fighter, IBF/WBA/WBO 175-pound champion Sergey Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KO's) to defeat a pound for pound mainstay in Andre Ward (30-0, 15 KO's).
Jackson had a similar task nearly two years ago when Kovalev defeated Bernard Hopkins to unify three titles at light heavyweight. Many people feel this fight has similarities in that Kovalev will be fighting a younger and fresher Hopkins in Ward. But Jackson does not see it that way.
"A lot of people make the comparison," Jackson said of comparing Hopkins to Ward. "I beg to differ. Bernard perfected his style to a tee. Andre is more rugged. There may be some small similarities. But to me there's no comparison because he doesn't have Bernard Hopkins boxing IQ. He grabs a lot and holds a lot. To me there aren't really any similarities to Bernard Hopkins except he's going to have the same problems Bernard had two Novembers ago that he'll have November 19th."
Though his fighter feels that Ward does well fighting on the inside, Jackson feels that Ward holds more than he fights on the inside.
"If you watch Andre and his style, he doesn't do well on the inside," said the trainer. "All he does is hold when he's on the inside. That's what we're going to work on when he tries to tie up is make him pay, make him feel some body shots so he thinks twice about tying up. We hope he tries to fight close so he could feel his power."
Jackson says Ward needs this fight to still be considered the best and that is why he took the fight.
"If they had times I guess they should have taken more fights. If he's good as he claims to be and as people have made him out to be, then he shouldn't need it. But this is a fight that he has to take if he wants to be considered the best."
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