If Kovalev doesn't get the big fights at LHW - should he move up to cruiser?

[PainfromUkraine]

Nope. Money is at LHW.

Stevenson can't hide forever, Pascal is still there, Ward will move up when he gets his head out of his ass and Chavez Jr. will be there because he's a ****in cruiserweight.

What if Stevenson fights Hopkins and loses, then Hopkins doesn't decide to defend and either has a fight at catchweight or another division, or retire. The ****e of a Stevenson-Kovalev battle will be somewhat gone and there won't be too many big money matchups available to him. A fight with Pascal would be good though. JCC Jr I think will be a scalp but not a true big win, especially if he comes up off the back of a loss to GGG (if that happens).

[PainfromUkraine]

Even though talent at cruiserweight is scarce, it's still a big step up (25 lbs) from light heavyweight. Huck and Chambers took punches from Povetkin without going down, so I have doubts about Kovalev's power carrying to cruiser.

Andre Ward has faced everyone at super-middleweight except Dirrell. If his heart is still in the game he will probably move up unless he wants to rematch the guys he's beaten.

Unfortunately, Kovalev's in a crap situation.

SOG has spoken in the past of wanting to move up to Heavyweight. RJJ did it, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility. Just think Kovalev could have some success if he did decide to move up, I really believe his power would remain. But more likely he will stay in this division and just be a beltholder/avoided guy with a few good wins when some good opponents become available but never 'the man' due to not being able to secure the biggest fights.

[Cuban Linx]

Kovalev isn't big enough for CW. He probably walks around 185 or so.

[GhostBlade]

I wonder if Kovalev would be able to cut to 168 and possibly fight Ward if Ward isn't willing to move up?

[PainfromUkraine]

I wonder if Kovalev would be able to cut to 168 and possibly fight Ward if Ward isn't willing to move up?

That would probably happen at a catchweight, if it does happen.

[The Hammer]

No, he has no trouble making 175 and should stay there.

There's still a lot of potential opponents at 175, here's the BoxRec top 20:

https://www.boxrec.com/ratings.php?c...us=A&SUBMIT=Go

1 Adonis Stevenson

2 Bernard Hopkins

3 Sergey Kovalev

4 Jean Pascal

5 Juergen Braehmer

6 Chad Dawson

7 Isaac Chilemba

8 Andrzej Fonfara

9 Lucian Bute

10 Blake Caparello

11 Eleider Alvarez

12 Thomas Williams Jr

13 Tavoris Cloud

14 Dmitry Sukhotsky

15 Robert Berridge

16 Nadjib Mohammedi

17 Beibut Shumenov

18 Umberto Savigne

19 Nathan Cleverly

20 Ryno Liebenberg

Also there's a lot of people at 168 who might move up (Kessler, Dirrell, Bika, winner of Froch-Groves, Chavez Jr, DeGale, Stieglitz). Several will do so for sure (Oosthuizen, Rodriguez).

[Tay Roc]

No. He has a ton of solid guys he could fight and build up his name until Andre Ward finishes his dispute with his promoter.

[The Hammer]

Cruiserweight is not a popular division in the USA. He's need to go back to Russia to have a career at CW, but he says he likes living in the USA.

I think Isaac Chilemba would be a good opponent for Kovalev's next fight. He's ranked in the top ten by The Ring and BoxRec.