Is it safe to assume Kovalev cannot box off his backfoot?

[-=Shade=-]

Stevenson is going to do better than alot of people realize. This fight was always 50/50 but Stevensons reluctance to fight clouded the minds of many people into thinking Kovalev easily dispatches him and thats not the case at all. With all that said Kovalev is still the best Light heavyweight in the world.

A year ago I would have slightly favoured Stevenson but now I'm of the opinion that Stevenson's shot is via 1-punch in the fist four rounds (before he gasses) as long as he doesn't get caught cold in the first 1:30, or otherwise caught. It could still go either way, but I'm leaning more Kovalev now.

What's up with my fellow Canuks gassing? Stevenson (he's oldish and late to the sport though). David Lemieux has had issues. Pascal faded badly (from the look of him). Hrmph.

[soul_survivor]

They aren't used to fighting on back foot because what they are doing has worked for them

Tell me which fighters will push them back

Pascal pushed kovalev back plenty of times and all he did was cover up. He's very uncomfortable going back and GGG is very much like that, although he's not east European lol.

But it's true there aren't many fighters at my or lhw that can push those two back. It's why Froch v GGG is so interesting and why the pascal fight was fun barring the stoppage.

[Shacklewell]

Kovalev and Golovkin are fighting on their backfoot and move laterally, but only for few moments until they resume attacking -- usually by shifting (which clearly confuses their opponents).

Here we go again... It's called plain old movement. "Shifting" is not a thing!

[Emphasis]

As these guys are professional (and good) boxers, I'm pretty sure he can. Of course he relies heavily on the style that works for him.

[MDPopescu]

Here we go again... It's called plain old movement. "Shifting" is not a thing!

You don't have to go anywhere... Of course shifting isn't a "think" -- it's a movement Americans nearly forgot about...
Just google "shifting boxing"...

https://www.google.ro/search?q=Nicholas+Walters+fight+night+weight&hl=en&biw=1437&bih=908&site=webhp&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=-P8LVZqlNJb1ar2BgZAF&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAA&dpr=1#hl=en&q=shifting+boxing

... About 705,000 results (0.50 seconds)