By Keith Idec
Sergey Kovalev says he overrated Andre Ward before their first fight, which was one of the reasons the former champion claims he over-trained for it.
At worst, the 33-year-old Ward is considered one of the top three boxers, pound-for-pound, in the world on most credible lists. Like Kovalev, however, John David Jackson wasn’t as impressed as he thought he’d be by Ward, who overcame difficulty early to score a close unanimous-decision victory over Kovalev in their light heavyweight title fight November 19 in Las Vegas.
Jackson, Kovalev’s trainer, believes Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) won at least eight rounds of their 12-round fight. Therefore, Jackson doesn’t think Kovalev needs to do too much differently when he and Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) square off again in an HBO Pay-Per-View main event June 17 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
“Honestly, if you look at it, Sergey won’t have to do much more than what he did because he proved to the fans in the first half of the fight that he can win it at Ward’s own game,” Jackson said during a conference call Tuesday. “Now what he needs to do more is be more effective and aggressive in the second half of the fight as the first half of the fight. But he proved he’s the better fighter, he’s the bigger puncher.”
Russia’s Kovalev knocked down Ward in the second round. Ward was able to get up, though, made some adjustments and was able to take control during the second half of the fight.
All three judges favored Ward’s work in the 12-round fight and each of them scored it 114-113 for the former undisputed super middleweight champion. Jackson still doesn’t think all that much of Ward’s performance.
“For all Ward’s team is claiming about how great he was,” Jackson said, “if that’s his best, then guess what? He’s past his prime, because all he did was survive. And in surviving, he was given points and awarded I guess the decision because he survived. He wasn’t hit with Sergey’s best shot. It wasn’t a full-on, hard shot that he landed. It wasn’t the best punch and it still dropped him. Just imagine what had happened if Sergey landed his best shot on Ward’s chin. It’d have been lights out.
“We’re gonna do things differently, but there’s not much more we could really do to be as victorious the second time around as he was the first time around. So there’s not much pressure as far as, ‘Oh, we have to change these different things now. Now on the flip side, all the stuff Ward and his camp’s talking, they better come up with a better game plan the second time around.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.