Kovalev could've fought better

Was too hung up on throwing that overhand right and left hooks and they were off target for much of the fight. He should've been feinting his way in as Bernard was ducking down and to his right and Sergey could've popped his head up with left uppercuts. This is basic elementary boxing, yet, it wasn't executed. Sergey was head hunting too much with the wrong shots when he could've gotten Hop out of there had he jabbed better, moved to his left, and created angles to land the power punches he wanted to land. The jab was almost non-existent from Kovalev tonight and that was one of the biggest problems. He followed Hop around too much and appeared uncomfortable to even try to fight on the inside. Hop gave him credit for keeping his range, but, I thought Kov should've pressed the action at the very beginning and make Hop come out of his shell and not get any sense of timing or comfort. Based on tonight, Kov is not as good of an in-fighter as I thought he could be. He appears to want to keep a certain range and seems kind of befuddled once he gets in too close and badly wants to back straight out and reset. And that's another thing, Kov has a terrible bad habit of backing straight up after he throws a counter to reset his cup/shorts. He does this in every fight and it is a terrible habit that can be exposed by a fighter who is a quick, agile counter puncher like Ward for instance. And the lack of body work was reprehensible. I can count on one hand the number of really good body shots Kovalev landed in this fight. That straight right hand should've been there early and often followed by a slide step to the left to land the left hook to the body. Overall, Kov fought well considering he was fighting the crafty old fox, but, it wasn't a perfect performance in my eyes. Much improvement can be done.

Comments (20)

Jsmooth9876

Hopkins also could've come to fight. It's hard to look good when the other fighters not trying to win the fight. I looked at last night more as a passing of the torch rather than a competitive price fight. Kovalev got passed Hopkins now let's get on to bigger and better fights. Cool, so when is ward moving up for the fight?

11y ago

animalfan10

No one cares you Taco bell employee nobody....

11y ago

Djanxx

I'm not surprised by the unintelligible posts on here...it is what this place is. People who really don't know anything about boxing but purport that they do but can't even break a fight down to save their lives. You've having a shocker.

11y ago

puga

Yeah that looked like Hopkins plan. Kovalev stayed composed all night. Slowly but surely......instead of picking up the deer laying in the middle of the road, he ran em over a few more times to make sure it was roadkilll.....:boxing:

11y ago

Scott9945

Kovalev won every single round, how could you better then that? Well I guess he could have won 13 rounds, but still, the 12 rounds he won were more then enough to secure the victory. Well he did win by 13 points, so it adds up the same. Poor loser thread. :bottle:

11y ago

KingTito

He knocked him down and won every round.

11y ago

Outwest_Exp_355

11y ago

Beercules

Fighting him on the inside (bhop's comfort zone)wouldve been the most horrible approach since that was bhops gameplan all along reason why he gave him props for keeping the distance... imo Yeah that looked like Hopkins plan. Kovalev stayed composed all night.

11y ago

puga

Fighting him on the inside (bhop's comfort zone)wouldve been the most horrible approach since that was bhops gameplan all along reason why he gave him props for keeping the distance... imo

11y ago

Lords

Kovalev won every single round, how could you better then that? Well I guess he could have won 13 rounds, but still, the 12 rounds he won were more then enough to secure the victory.

11y ago

jmrf4435

AHAHA this post is a reflection of a poor loser(in the fan world). Nothing you say has any validity, Kov performed almost as good as he could have(nearly, and probably should have scored the TKO if it was not for Bhops crazy corner). You don't know as much about boxing as you think you do kido!!

11y ago

twrx

O.P while I agree he used the overland right a lot more than he should Hopkins had no answer to it . And as far as a left hook goes it was almost non existing . A left hook to the body would have done wonders for him in this fight. I seriously think if ggg has the power @175 people say he does I think he'd stop bhop. But I don't get how the crusher could have done better. You say he wanted the fight and his distance, well, isn't that the point? To fight where you are best? He won a way no one thought he could he did what Pascal and others beside Dawson could do is not fall into the aliens minds games he wasn't pulled into going out his comfort zone in winning a boring fight . Lol Floyd/ward defensively outbox opponent's to 12 round decisions and get called masterfull tacticians but a puncher clean sweeps the cards and gets ****on . And here I thought it ccouldn't get worse

11y ago

Butt_stuff

All this kerfuffle about no body punching, dude was jabbing the sh*t out of B-hops fantastic mid-drift (Bernie could pull off a crop top fo sho) Kovalev doesn't use his jab to the body to range find or score points, he commits heavily to it and uses it to do damage He drops people with it ffs and never missed with it either. Without a doubt it was one of the key tools to his win, try watching the actual fight next time

11y ago

Vasyls_dad

Nahhhh. He could've done more. I mean he was okay. Sure he won and all, but...IDK, he just left me wanting more. I thought he could have added maybe 4 to 6 more knockdowns, and maybe won 3 or 4 more rounds. I know that he won every round on every score card but surely he could have squeezed out more rounds even though it would have been technically impossible. But still. If he was on his A game then to be quite honest a 120-90 score card is what he should have been aiming for. Disappointed in Sergey. You're absolutely right. When Sergei threw his first punch and it knocked Hopkins down, I felt a little disappointed too. Who waits until their first punch to put someone on their ass? Kovalev is a hypejob.

11y ago

120

Keep laughing BOY...I was boxing before you were even close to being born. :lol1: http://media0.giphy.com/media/13AHIZGzBvogqA/giphy.gif

11y ago

MDPopescu

I'm more impressed that he shut him out then if he would have KO'ed him in like 3-4 rounds. He showed he can go 12 comfortably. Bernard has an akward style and makes people look bad regularly. Kovalev did what he wanted to do all night, he kept his range, used the jab to the body and essentially shut Hopkins offense completely down fearing the counter punch coming back. I think he certainly could have thrown some uppercuts as Bernard was bending almost to the waist as he usually does and he did always turn his head to the right to roll that overhand right from Kovalev. So some left hooks to the body and maybe a few uppercuts here and there would have been nice to see but overall I'm very impressed in the performance. Kovalev doesn't use uppercuts... i don't remember him throwing such punches...

11y ago

Jsmooth9876

11y ago

5310

http://www.boxingscene.com/uploads/83883/hopkins-kovalev%20%2826%29.jpg

11y ago

MPX309

I'd go as far as saying I think Kovalev showed maybe a little too much respect for Hopkins, but who knows, if he tried to finish the fight early Hopkins might have capitalised on that. . . Realistically I think Kovalev fought the perfect fight really.

11y ago

MDPopescu

... Kovalev could've fought better... Kovalev never fought 12 rounds. ... "The good old school inside boxing" is an American brand -- The "Russian old school" doesn't include this technique... In short: that is why you (Americans) don't understand the Russian boxing style (at its best).

11y ago