After watching the fight live and now a few replays, what loom large in my mind is:
How Ward neutralized that Jackhammer Jab. Granted Kovalev landed a few good jabs but he wasn't allowed to dictate the whole fight with it.
Ward slipped them, blocked it, and countered over the top. As well as us his feet to dip in and out of range.
Master Class of Boxing until be broke his man down and stopped him.U All started with taking the jab away.
No jab no right hand from Sergei.
Ward is simply a better fighter than Kovalev. All Kovalev could do was more of the same. Ward is capable of adjusting his style to negate any fighter. He's got that thing Mayweather had where it didn't matter who the opponent is you know he'll find a way to win. I still don't know why people pick against him.
*Winning the Super 6 tournament
*Cleaning out 168
*Beat The Most Fear Puncher in boxing, once by KO(while competing in a higher division).
*Last US Gold Medal winner for Men
*Hasn't lost a fight in damn near 20 years
*Represents the Bay very well.
Legendary
Sounds like an ATG already. Ward style is aging well. Mayweather esque.
Couple years back boys here were talking bad on the Kid. He is waste and a disappointment. Glad to see bruh on top Shining.
I was talking about his place up against the great LHW's of the past and because that's a division that was stacked with some incredible fighters over the decades, he's going to have to do a lot more then beat some random Cuban and a guy who's best win was a UD against a 50 year old man. Just think of the LHW division - Fitzsimmons, Moore, Charles, Spinks, RJJ, Hopkins, Toney etc - could you see him beating any of them in their primes? Definitely not.
At SMW he's probably the greatest ever.
Actually I made not a single thread on Sunday, made one on Monday, one on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and four on thursday, as more and more debates were arising on different issues in regards to the rematch.
All my threads were related to the rematch, but on different issues. I gave my opinions, and backed them up with pics/GIFs/videos. One side agreed, and the other side resorted mostly to calling me butthurt instead of actually posting anything relevant to counter me. Oh and air bubbles...
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gMdmln9R4GE/Tp2imoGTSZI/AAAAAAAAAw0/KXZzeWWMJj4/s1600/Wrestling_butthurt.gif
Ward was good and won that fight without too much trouble but tbh before the first fight I thought he was going to win in even more impressive fashion. I thought he would make Kovalev look robotic and amateurish but guess not. He needs to beat Stevenson, Beterbiev and close his legacy out with a few more good wins and then we can start talking about him against the greats.
*Winning the Super 6 tournament
*Cleaning out 168
*Beat The Most Fear Puncher in boxing, once by KO(while competing in a higher division).
*Last US Gold Medal winner for Men
*Hasn't lost a fight in damn near 20 years
*Represents the Bay very well.
Legendary
Sounds like an ATG already. Ward style is aging well. Mayweather esque.
Couple years back boys here were talking bad on the Kid. He is waste and a disappointment. Glad to see bruh on top Shining.
Kovalev still had the superior jab, heck even the highly biased HBO and Sky teams acknowledged it. Ward didn't nuetralise it at all.
Of course he neutralized it. Infact he neutralized everything Kovalev had. The last few rounds all he was throwing were weak aimless arm punches just for the sake of trying to be busy. There was nothing effective about his work by the last round.
Ward was good and won that fight without too much trouble but tbh before the first fight I thought he was going to win in even more impressive fashion. I thought he would make Kovalev look robotic and amateurish but guess not. He needs to beat Stevenson, Beterbiev and close his legacy out with a few more good wins and then we can start talking about him against the greats.
This thread is for Ward fans to be tickling their own ego. The truth is Ward was inferior up until the 6th round. Then he started by bending the rules and when that didn't help much, he simply broke them.
http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/113/join_in_the_internet_circle_jerk_print-ra11ce31c7e7d40d78d37d8a5a1e777f5_zod_400.jpg
You made like 20 threads from Sunday through Monday after the fight.
I kept thinking that Ward may be able to get Kov out of there but then I would remind myself that he has had almost no KO's in a long time but then I came back to the thought that if Ward puts everything behind a punch something that he rarely does, he could badly hurt Kov and then a round later he did with that big right hand. Usually with big punchers vs great boxers a great boxer lets the puncher wear himself out and slowly and as they say takes the puncher out to the deep water and drowns them. The deep water came earlier than I imagined.
The difference is
Ward can dish it out and TAKE it.
Kovalev can dish it out....but he CAN'T take it.
See notes where I say conditioning and chin!
Hope Ward vs Stevenson happens, it's a must see fight!
Would love to see how Hunter and Ward come up with a plan to takeaway his Left hand and power!
Ward is the only fighter at 175 that can do what he did to a prime Kovalev that night!
It's due to his superior speed, experience, chin, conditioning and the fact he's willing to bend the rules a lot more to get the W!
Kov needed to get nasty in there and he did a.good.job of keeping the pressure by throwing more punches in the rematch!
Idk why no one's talking about the short uppercuts Kov was throwing the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the fight and was catching Ward with some of them!
The problem is his arms is so long it will take him longer to land his shots in close and his power varies depending on how far out!
Ward vs Stevenson needs to be next either late in the fall or early next year!
Ward came out right-handed.
Kovalev wasn't ready for that.
U mean he came out throwing the right hand lead?
He didn't fight South paw that I noticed. Right hand was a major weapon. Even as a Ward supported I didn't know he could hang like that still.
Kovalev still had the superior jab, heck even the highly biased HBO and Sky teams acknowledged it. Ward didn't nuetralise it at all.
Agreed. He didn't directly defuse the jab. He went to the body, which was effective. And Kovalev gassed himself again.
Kovalev still had the superior jab, heck even the highly biased HBO and Sky teams acknowledged it. Ward didn't nuetralise it at all.
Kovalev got exposed honestly. He was punching air most of the fight, whiched helped lead to his demise in the ring
It was one of those performances where you have to be not only an elite fighter, but an elite fighter on a good day. He could have easily got caught moving in and out of range like that. It took a strong mental game to not shy away when he got tagged, and to throw big shots like lead right hands and things that expose you a bit.
If you went back a year and a half and told people here that Ward would dismantle Kovalev like that, they'd tell you to GTFO.
Great post. Ward's use of angles, head movement, anticipation, counters, slips and smothering bottled up Kovalev's jab.
I thought Kovalev had a more well rounded offensive arsenal but he's pretty much mostly jabs and straights.
I'd like to see him incorporate some hooks and uppercuts into his arsenal. It will pay off a ton when he's at close range. Right now he's only effective when he's at his preferred range. He does an exceptional job of controlling range but elite fighters like Ward take away what you do best.
welcome back Ward
Great post. Ward's use of angles, head movement, anticipation, counters, slips and smothering bottled up Kovalev's jab.
I thought Kovalev had a more well rounded offensive arsenal but he's pretty much mostly jabs and straights.
I'd like to see him incorporate some hooks and uppercuts into his arsenal. It will pay off a ton when he's at close range. Right now he's only effective when he's at his preferred range. He does an exceptional job of controlling range but elite fighters like Ward take away what you do best.
After watching the fight live and now a few replays, what loom large in my mind is:
How Ward neutralized that Jackhammer Jab. Granted Kovalev landed a few good jabs but he wasn't allowed to dictate the whole fight with it.
Ward slipped them, blocked it, and countered over the top. As well as us his feet to dip in and out of range.
Master Class of Boxing until be broke his man down and stopped him.U All started with taking the jab away.
No jab no right hand from Sergei.
He did. He neutralized pretty much everything.