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By Lyle Fitzsimmons - OK, folks, what exactly did we see on Saturday night in Montreal?
Was it a rampaging champion stepping up in class and handling – albeit not entirely comprehensively – the most completely qualified challenger either he or his most significant contemporary has met?
Or was it something else, more along the lines of a heretofore beyond reproach automaton being shown to have tangible cracks in what had previously been an impenetrable shell?
It says here that it was a little of both.
Yes, Sergey Kovalev threw more punches, landed more punches, scored the lone knockdown and had won all but one round when hostilities ended after 63 seconds of round 8 with Jean Pascal.
And yes, Kovalev was unable to blow the doors off a consensus top-five light heavyweight, left himself open for more than intermittent counterpunches and wobbled noticeably upon their landings.
Even the Russian himself seemed to waver in his assessment, suggesting to HBO’s microphone that he wasn’t thrilled with the beginning, but that the end was precisely what the Kremlin ordered.
“How I start it, I didn't like,” Kovalev told HBO's Max Kellerman. “But after four rounds I got the control. I got him with a good right hand and he was mine.”
Of course, the unsettled nature of the Kovalev report card does little practical good for the gutty but certainly beaten Pascal, who’ll be nursing a headache for days even as his perceptions rise in the eyes of those who judge a fighter’s worth by the beating he’s able to absorb before folding.
Toward those dubious ends, he earned more respect in loss No. 3 than he had in wins 1 through 29. [Click Here To Read More]
Was it a rampaging champion stepping up in class and handling – albeit not entirely comprehensively – the most completely qualified challenger either he or his most significant contemporary has met?
Or was it something else, more along the lines of a heretofore beyond reproach automaton being shown to have tangible cracks in what had previously been an impenetrable shell?
It says here that it was a little of both.
Yes, Sergey Kovalev threw more punches, landed more punches, scored the lone knockdown and had won all but one round when hostilities ended after 63 seconds of round 8 with Jean Pascal.
And yes, Kovalev was unable to blow the doors off a consensus top-five light heavyweight, left himself open for more than intermittent counterpunches and wobbled noticeably upon their landings.
Even the Russian himself seemed to waver in his assessment, suggesting to HBO’s microphone that he wasn’t thrilled with the beginning, but that the end was precisely what the Kremlin ordered.
“How I start it, I didn't like,” Kovalev told HBO's Max Kellerman. “But after four rounds I got the control. I got him with a good right hand and he was mine.”
Of course, the unsettled nature of the Kovalev report card does little practical good for the gutty but certainly beaten Pascal, who’ll be nursing a headache for days even as his perceptions rise in the eyes of those who judge a fighter’s worth by the beating he’s able to absorb before folding.
Toward those dubious ends, he earned more respect in loss No. 3 than he had in wins 1 through 29. [Click Here To Read More]
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