Kovalev Strategy to win on June 17th?

Distance, distance, distance, distance. Keep Ward at the tip of your jab. When he takes two steps forward, you take two steps backwards. When he gets inside, grab him, tie his arms up and don't let him work. Keep the fight on the outside and either get the stoppage by timing Ward as he tries to close distance or cruise to a points decision. Nope, he can't... nobody can keep Ward away, if Ward wants to jump inside with his head leading low... (except the ref...) Kovalev may only be lucky and catch Ward clean...

Do you ever support American fighters??? Ha! Of course I do. If they're worthy. Floyd, Leonard, Hagler, Tyson are just a few of my favorites. Currently I think Jacobs and the Charlo brothers are solid. Let me think about it some more. Thanks for noticing though :)

Don't worry about stamina but don't throw carelessly, cleverly cut off the ring and maintain range. Ward's actual defensive skills are poor, his defense is more intelligent moves to negate an opponents assault like ducking below the waist, being out of range or smothering. Not reflex based as he likes to think he possesses. He also has no basic defense for the jab like catching with the right hand. Keep it at range and shoe shine(hooks and uppercuts) Ward when he comes in before stepping out and reseting. Focusing on landing some hard body shots early I think would be clever too.

In the first fight he relied too much on the KD and thought he could breeze through the later rounds. Kovalev needs to be unrelenting and keep pressuring Ward. A red handkerchief to prepare for the billy goat rush would be nice too. :)

Knock him out out the Judges already have their cards filled out 115 to 113 to have Ward as the winner

Why not get a new trainer?

He needs a good camp, work on his conditioning and keep that jab out there.

the jab was his best weapon, throw hundreds of them, keep ward at jab distance and throw enough right crosses to try to keep him there, when ward does get in, tie him up, step back, right uppercut and left hook followed by more jabs.

Wrote this shortly after the fight. I think it still applies... What each man must do in a rematch For Ward, it has to be more of the same. Much more. With 12 rounds under his belt and the knowledge he can get up from a good shot from Kovalev, it should be easier for him the second time around, but he has to know a second close fight might very well go to Sergei the next time. He must go to the body even more relentlessly and start it from the opening bell. He must not just seek to block Kovalev's jab- which still leaves open the possibility of Sergei splitting his guard with a crushing right- he must time it well enough to slip and counter. If he is able to do these things, he will likely turn in a dominating performance with even a stoppage not out of the question. Kovalev's job can be summed up in one word: Busy. He must throw punches in bunches. He must cut off the ring and keep things at a distance that favors him. He must be ready for Ward's tactic of darting in, ready with well timed counters, particularly straight right leads and uppercuts. And, perhaps most importantly, he has got to figure out what to do about Ward's inside game if and when Andre gets inside. And, whatever that strategy turns out to be, it has to be more than using a reverse headlock (personally, I think holding in that way was something that worked very negatively against Sergei with the judges. If I see a guy using a reverse headlock almost every time his opponent gets close, sooner or later I might start to wonder what it is he is so desperate to avoid so often). He has got to learn to work inside, even if it is a little, because he cannot leave the impression that he is gun-shy in that area. If he keeps things outside for the most part, and keeps the inside exchanges honest, he can do enough damage to win a clear UD or even stop Ward in the late middle to last rounds.

He just has to not gas out, he dominated first half of the fight. He has said that he over trained the first time. Even in the second half I thought he obviously won round 10 and it was robbery that the judges didn't give it to him but whatever.

he did pretty well in the first fight, he just needs to not abandon the jab. he did great when he used it

KKK now knows that Ward is over rated. This will be easier than the first fight for the Krusher. If he can just get a break from the corrupt judging this should see a comfortable win.

What would you suggest Kovalev to do to win against Ward? Is Carl Froch true when he says Andre ward would never be defeated because he plays dirty? There is some truth to that. Ward plays in the grey area and also makes it ugly. Hard to blame him though if he gets away with it.

He had a decent plan the first fight. Keep it outside, don't let Ward work inside. Stay calm. I expect to see a bit more fire this time. I would like to see some more body shots. I remember him hurting Ward to the body late in the fight, although he failed to make much of it. Ward did a lot more work to the body, and that seemed to help him out. I have heard a lot of people say that Ward has him figured out and will pick up where he left off, but I don't buy that. I think Kovalev can execute a better fight than he did in the previous match. He was too passive and careful. It served him well to not be reckless, but he needs to take advantage of his power and accuracy and not be satisfied to just box. He can hit and he can hurt Ward, and I expect he will have the mindset to get it done next time. I'm going out on a limb and saying Kov by stoppage.

Also looks like Kovalev is not in good shape

Keep the fight at midrange which he was doing in the early rounds. He tried to outwrestle Ward and prove a point and tired. Ward doesnt have the arsenal to beat Kov at midrange. Ward has a tougher adjustment to make and that is how to close the gap without getting drilled. I think kovalev will always have the upperhand early when they are both fresh because he has more weapons. Mid to late rounds when the pace is slower is when wards style starts to take over. Should be another close fight.

try to get the fight changed to a 4 rounder

He needs to do a little bit more of the same things he did in the first fight. Ward is a smart fighter. If he makes some drastic changes Ward might be able to capitalize on it.

Distance, distance, distance, distance. Keep Ward at the tip of your jab. When he takes two steps forward, you take two steps backwards. When he gets inside, grab him, tie his arms up and don't let him work. Keep the fight on the outside and either get the stoppage by timing Ward as he tries to close distance or cruise to a points decision. You sir know what you are talking about... :boxing: The old Emanuel Steward style of boxing.

Keep the fight at range, and don't relent even if he thinks he's winning. He also needs to make sure he has the energy to neutralize Ward inside throughout the whole fight. A big reason Ward came back is because Kovalev couldn't clinch him like he did so successfully early.