Kovalev's Coach: If Sergey Lands Clean Early - Ward Will Be Gone!

By Edward Chaykovsky

John David Jackson, who trains WBA Super, IBF, WBO world light-heavyweight champion Sergy Kovalev (30-0-1, 26KOs), says their upcoming opponent, Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward, is declining as a fighter and is no longer the man who dominated all of the fighters at 168-pounds years ago.

Ward has been inactive. He's only fought four times in four years, but Kovalev will be his third fight of 2016. He dominated Sullivan Barrera in March, and then came back in August to dominate Alexander Brand - but Ward wasn't spectacular in either fight. Kovalev fight twice as well, stopping Jean Pascal in January and then won a twelve round decision over Isaac Chilemba in July.

"I'm definitely not saying that Andre is past it but for me he is on a slow decline. He is 32 and if you look at his last few fights, he does not move as fluently as he once did and his timing can be a bit off. Maybe it is ring rust, but his last fight against [Alexander] Brand certainly did not help him prepare for Sergey. You could also say that Sergey may be declining, but a puncher declines a lot slower than a boxer," Jackson told Sky Sports.

Jackson rejects the notion that Ward vs. Kovalev is a simple fight between a puncher and a boxer.

"Of course this fight is not simply just a boxer against a puncher, which would be selling Kovalev short on his true boxing ability. You just have to look at his fight with [Bernard] Hopkins - a unanimous decision win - and Sergey showed that he can be patient and very smart against one of the most intelligent fighters in the game," Jackson said. "Now, Ward is very smart as well, but he does not have that one big punch. If he goes looking for that punch then he will be left vulnerable and be countered."

Jackson has a very good feeling that Kovalev will knock Ward - and he even thinks that a knockout victory can happen in the early. If Kovalev lands a clean shot on Ward's chin, Jackson expects the knockout win soon follow.

"I'm very confident that Sergey will win and he knows exactly what to do against Andre. We know that you can't fall into Ward's pitfalls. We know Andre's strengths, his feinting and trying to punch and move away - we can't let him do that. Ward can be taken out early, if Sergey lands cleanly early on then Ward is gone. If he manages to get back up, he will still be hurt and is now a sitting duck. Once Sergey smells blood, he will go for the knockout," Jackson said.

"Reports say he's gonna stand and fight and go to Sergey's body and we want that, he will leave himself wide open for counter punching. Ward will want to be aggressive and cut off the ring and keep our guy from landing long punches, but Sergey can throw bombs from any distance."