By Keith Idec
TOTOWA, N.J. – From the moment Sergey Kovalev dropped Bernard Hopkins in the first round of their fight two years ago, Kathy Duva sensed from her front-row seat that Hopkins had gone into survival mode.
Kovalev dominated Hopkins, then 49 years old, during their 12-round fight and left the aged legend ducking and dodging his way toward finishing their one-sided fight on his feet at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Duva – whose company, Main Events, promotes Kovalev – doesn’t expect Andre Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) to take the same approach as Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs, 2 NC), no matter how hard Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) hits him early in their fight Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View; $64.95-$69.95 in HD).
“Sergey showed Bernard Hopkins, who was in the twilight of his career, that he punched harder and boxed better than Bernard ever imagined,” Duva said. “So Bernard went into a different gear and he survived. And I don’t blame him. I don’t think Ward’s going to do that. I just don’t buy it. I don’t think Ward will slip into another gear and try to survive. I don’t think a guy who hasn’t lost since he was 12 will do that. I really believe he’s gonna fight.”
Kovalev catching Ward with a gameplan-altering punch early in their light heavyweight title fight and having Ward stand his ground is an ideal scenario for Kovalev and Duva. That would create the type of fight that favors the heavier-handed Kovalev and thus the exciting encounter that would benefit the boxing business in an event that isn’t likely to draw a pay-per-view audience commensurate with the quality of this matchup.
“Sergey is a better boxer than most people realize and I suspect Ward is a better fighter than most people realize, if he’s pressed” said Duva, who was Main Events’ publicist before becoming its chief executive officer several years after the death of her husband, promoter Dan Duva, in January 1996. “I’ve seen a lot of dull guys be in a lot of interesting fights when somebody pressed them. And he’s getting pressed. That’s what makes this so much fun.
“Is Sergey going to win by boxing? Is Ward going to win by fighting? Is it the better puncher or the guy who takes the better punch? In Leonard-Hearns, Hearns was clearly the bigger puncher. But [late blow-by-blow announcer] Don Dunphy said at the beginning of the broadcast, this is going to be about who takes the better punch. And he was right. That’s what it was."
" Is Ward the guy who takes the better punch? I don’t know. I don’t think so. But he gets the chance to show us, because he’s gonna get punched. I don’t care how cute he wants to be or how slick he thinks he is, he’s gonna get punched.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
