By Keith Idec
The best way Sergey Kovalev can avoid another close, controversial loss to Andre Ward would be to knock out Ward in their light heavyweight championship rematch.
John David Jackson thinks that would be the ideal outcome of their rematch June 17, but Jackson doesn’t consider a Kovalev knockout to be absolutely necessary. Jackson watched Kovalev out-box Ward in the first half of their November 19 bout and is convinced Kovalev can win a decision if the former champion can produce that type of performance for 12 rounds.
“I never stress [knockouts] and even in this fight I’m not stressing it,” Jackson told BoxingScene.com. “Just put rounds in the bank. I tell him, ‘If you do the second half of the second fight like you did the first half of the first fight, you should be victorious. You proved my point. I told people you could out-box Ward’ and in the first half of he was doing that.
“If he can do that in the second half of this fight and just stay on course, he can win the fight because he can out-box him. His jab is stronger and he has shown that. Usually when a fighter has a good jab and he’s jabbing against a jabber, the jabber is in trouble because he’s never had to deal with that type of situation. So if Sergey does in the second half of the second fight what he did in the first half of the first fight, he should be victorious regardless if it’s by knockout, a late-round stoppage or a decision.”
A resilient Ward was able to overcome a second-round knockdown, made adjustments to neutralize Kovalev’s vaunted right hand and rallied during the second half of their 12-round fight to win a unanimous decision. All three judges credited Ward with a 114-113 victory six months ago at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
If Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) wants to avoid another loss to Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) two weeks from Saturday night at Mandalay Bay Events Center, Jackson says he must, “Go to the body more. Hit him to the body, hit him in his arms more. Sergey’s a tremendous puncher, period. [We need] good body shots.
“Like when he fought Nathan Cleverly, he hit Nathan everywhere – in his arms, in his shoulders, wherever he could hit him. And you saw all over his body was red. By the fourth round, the fight was over. Nathan could barely keep his arms up. If he does that with Ward, then it should make the fight easier for Sergey.”
Ward, 33, is a slight favorite over Kovalev, 34, with two weeks to go before their HBO Pay-Per-View main event at Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.