How do you think Ward will fight Kovalev?

[bojangles1987]

He'll make Kovalev play the aggressor, obviously. When Kovalev lunges and overreaches, which he does have a tendency to do at times, Ward will try to avoid it and smother. Kovalev is pretty vulnerable when he backs off after attacking. That is where I expect Ward to try and capitalize. He can smother, push back, and land.

It won't be easy to do that, but I think Hunter and Ward will notice that opening in Kovalev's game and build a gameplan around exploiting it. It's his biggest flaw, by far.

[TheUndertaker]

We've seen a few different styles from Ward over the years, whether it's his aggressive smothering tactics like against Alan Green or more of his traditional hit and don't get hit fighting at range, among other variations. With Kovalev it's extremely intriguing since he's big and rangey with a hard jab and difficult to deal with from the outside, and yet trying to out muscle him by clinching and smothering can end up equally as bad since he's been known to hurt people with short shots. So with that said, what kind of gamelan do you think Ward would implement against Kovalev and how do you see it working out?

Ward's strategy will be to bring his own body bag so when Kovalev kills him in the ring he can just be put into it and carried away! Ward has 0 chance of beating Kovalev! Ward has no power, never was a big puncher, his hug and mug style won't work on Kovalev as we saw against Hopkins. There is no one better at dirty boxing than Hopkins and Kovalev schooled him. Ward will be exposed badly in this fight as I don't see it going the distance.

[Larry the boss]

he'll make kovalev play the aggressor, obviously. When kovalev lunges and overreaches, which he does have a tendency to do at times, ward will try to avoid it and smother. Kovalev is pretty vulnerable when he backs off after attacking. That is where i expect ward to try and capitalize. He can smother, push back, and land.

It won't be easy to do that, but i think hunter and ward will notice that opening in kovalev's game and build a gameplan around exploiting it. It's his biggest flaw, by far.

spot on.......

[Larry the boss]

No one wants to talk strategy? I guess people prefer the "Ward schools Kovalev, fact!" threads a lot better!

Thoughts??????

[j0zef]

While I do think that Ward will try to get inside, where he's a more accomplished fighter, I don't get why so many people are saying that Ward needs to get inside. He doesn't - he's actually as tall (or possibly even taller, 6'1 vs 6'0) and has the same reach (72 vs 71?) as Kovalev. There isn't a huge reach advantage.

Anyway, here's my take:
Kov is strong, but he's he doesn't throw a lot of combinations. I can see them starting slowly and playing the pot-shot game for a few rounds, with most of those rounds going to Ward. After that, Kov realizes he hasn't touched up Ward enough and that he's probably behind on most cards, so he gets aggressive, and starts lunging a lot... where the fight can go one of four ways:
-Ward catches Kovalev off-balance and hurts him. Kov either gets KOd or becomes tentative for next 3 rounds. Repeat from beginning for next 6 rounds, Ward UD12
-Ward is able to nullify Kovalev's lunges by consistently getting inside. Ward UD12
-Kovalev can successfully close the distance and hurt Ward, and the fight ends up playing out similar to Hopkins with closer scores, something like 8-4 Kovalev.
-Ward's power is severely overrated against Kovalev and he walks through his punches and puts a beating onto Ward, resulting in a Kovalev TKO7

[STEELHEAD]

Ward's strategy will be to bring his own body bag so when Kovalev kills him in the ring he can just be put into it and carried away! Ward has 0 chance of beating Kovalev! Ward has no power, never was a big puncher, his hug and mug style won't work on Kovalev as we saw against Hopkins. There is no one better at dirty boxing than Hopkins and Kovalev schooled him. Ward will be exposed badly in this fight as I don't see it going the distance.

you convinced me.
i see ward wussy footing around and stretching the fight into later rounds.

[Kagami Taiga]

Kovalev has a few glaring weaknesses. He overcommits to his punches quite often, he isn't really comfortable fighting in the phone booth(most soviet fighters aren't apparently), he lacks head movement, and he has a tendency to attack in a straight line. Ward is more than capable of exploiting all of this. I think he will play the range game first, make him over commit, set traps and counter at range. Now if that doesn't work, things will get interesting. I expect him to play his feet, go for Kovs chest and go to work, making it a phone booth type ugly fight. I think they have enough to make a real good game plan tbh.

[MisterPullman]

Kovalev-Ward will look a lot like this..

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Except, I see Ward getting T/KO'd

[-PBP-]

I agree that Ward will have to get him to come to him and counter, but after he counters he will have to try and stay on the inside as long as possible,rough him up, rinse and repeat

He'll make Kovalev play the aggressor, obviously. When Kovalev lunges and overreaches, which he does have a tendency to do at times, Ward will try to avoid it and smother. Kovalev is pretty vulnerable when he backs off after attacking. That is where I expect Ward to try and capitalize. He can smother, push back, and land.

It won't be easy to do that, but I think Hunter and Ward will notice that opening in Kovalev's game and build a gameplan around exploiting it. It's his biggest flaw, by far.

Agreed with both of these. Kovalev also has a bad habit of backing straight up. He paid for it early against Caparello.

[gmc_rfc_06]

It's interesting to think about.

Kovalev is a beast. When you hit THAT hard but also have a good skill-set that includes a good jab, good movement and a good boxing IQ, you're hard to game plan against. Saying that, Andre Ward from a talent and boxing IQ standpoint is sensational. He's capable of many styles and he does them all pretty flawlessly.

I think he'll counter and tie up, given the size disparity. I think to be aggressive against Kovalev you need to possess big power yourself to make him somewhat cautious about what's coming back, in Ward's case I think he'll have to rely on his skills and movement to get the decision.