By Peter Lim

In the sport of boxing, it is not uncommon to see a clash between two diametrically polar styles. It is rare but not that uncommon for two of the best top 10 pound-for-pound fighters to meet in the ring for a super fight. But to have these two factors converge together is a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence.

Sergei Kovalev versus Andre Ward, both undefeated, battle-tested and at the top of their games, could go down as this era's most intriguing showdown between one of the best offensive-minded exponents against one of the best proponents of defense in the sport.

Offense has always been Kovalev's best defense. The knockout, the most decisive and indisputable path to victory, is what he craves.

From a military analogy, though, Kovalev is not one of those bloodthirsty Russian generals who orders his machine gun divisions to indiscriminately blast the enemy away on the battlefield simply because he has the strength and firepower to do just that. Instead, he strategically coordinates his sniper and heavy artillery units to work in tandem, sharpshooting accurate jabs to set up debilitating power punches while rarely wasting any punches.

Ward, on the other hand, favors breaking down his opponents mentally more than physically, who seems content to cruise to decision victories even against severely overmatched opponents. Like your typical meddlesome mother-in-law, he has the infuriatingly ability to cramp your style.

If boxing was a microcosm of the entire spectrum of martial arts, Ward would be the poster boy for Aikido, the art of minimizing incoming damage while tactically turning his enemies' aggressions against themselves. Many a defensive boxer kills his opponents' rhythm by smothering and stopping the action, but Ward has further pioneered that maneuver to be able to score, head-jolting shots on his own terms while subtly disentangling himself from a clinch before the referee can intervene. He is exasperatingly difficult to hit from the outside and protects himself extremely well at close quarters.

Although rare, pure attackers and defenders have collided at the peak of their careers in the recent past, and if the results of those encounters are any portent to the outcome of this super showdown, the odds appear to favor Ward.  As the adage goes: "offense sells tickets, defense wins fights."

Here are some recent fights between offensive and defensive specialists at or near the peaks of their careers, two of which involve Kovalev and Ward themselves.

Sergei Kovalev vs. Bernard Hopkins (November 2014)

Granted, Bernard Hopkins was no longer at the peak of his career, but even at age 49, he was still pretty damn close, having defeated Beibut Shumenov and Tavoris Cloud to partially unify the light heavyweight crown prior to facing Kovalev. And he was not always a purely defensive-oriented fighter but became more and more so after vacating the middleweight division to campaign at light heavyweight.

But the slickness and savvy Hopkins deployed to befuddle and dethrone younger, fresher opponents was no match for Kovalev's punch accuracy and steadfast attacks. Kovalev dropped B-Hop in the opening round and dominated virtually every other round for a lopsided decision victory. If not for Hopkins' concrete chin, Kovalev would have stopped him inside of six rounds.

Andre Ward vs. Arthur Abraham (May 2011)

Here again, Abraham wasn't exactly at his prime, but not too far off. A Neanderthal of a fighter, the Armenian-German managed to rock Ward with two or three clean shots but, that was it. The fight resembled a club-swinging caveman trying to decapitate a slick, swivel-footed musketeer who had been educated in his craft since the middle ages. Ward effortlessly boxed, sidestepped and counter punched his way to a 12-round victory.

Pernell Whitaker vs. Julio Cesar Chavez (September 1993)

It couldn't get any better than this. Whitaker and Chavez were the first and second ranked pound-for-pound fighters respectively. Chavez was an indomitable offensive machine and Whitaker was a defensive wizard.

The verdict hardly reflected what actually transpired in the fight. Whitaker boxed circles around Chavez for the entire fight only to be robbed with a draw.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Diego Corrales (January 2001)

It was the fight that launched Mayweather into superstardom. Immaculately skilled Mayweather was 24-0 while intensely savage Corrales was 33-0 and the fight appeared to be a 50-50 tossup. But defense prevailed over offense big time. Fluidly gliding around the ring, Mayweather never presented an opening for Corrales to land a clean, solid shot. Counter punching and flurrying at opportune moments, Mayweather eventually broke down and stopped Corrales after 10 one-sided rounds.

Bernard Hopkins vs. Kelly Pavlik (October 2008)

Hopkins essentially exposed Pavlik as a hard-punching albeit one-dimensional bully in this encounter. Hopkins made spot-on adjustments throughout the fight while Pavlik kept chugging forward ineffectually. Reading his opponent's body language like a carnival psychic, Hopkins showed that if you were first to the punch and countered when Pavlik missed, he could be rendered a sitting duck for the entire fight.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana I and II (May and September 2014)

Many fans thought Mayweather was lucky to escape with a majority decision in his first encounter with the plucky kill-or-be-killed Maidana, who had revived his career with a thrilling upset over Mayweather's protégé Adrien Broner. But Mayweather never makes the same mistake twice. In the rematch, in typical Mayweather fashion, he calculatingly worked the 10-point must scoring system to a tee, stealthily doing just enough to win most rounds and stymieing the action before Maidana had a chance to retaliate.

Bernard Hopkins vs. Felix Trinidad (Sept. 2001)

This fight might not fit this category hand in glove since, as a middleweight, Hopkins paid equal attention to offense and defense, but it's worth a mention since it was predominantly his defense that won him the fight. For 11 rounds, Hopkins utilized his subtle and sneaky defensive prowess to befuddle and render the usually fearsome punching Trinidad impotent, saving his offensive power for the final round to knock Trinidad out.