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I think SK is getting a tad too much stick after this fight. People are major over reacting. Shows the stock of Kovalev that if he doesn't put somebody of Chilemba's stock away in 4/5 rounds he's suddenly demoted in some way! Chilema is awkward & durable always has been !I just finished the HBO replay, and I don’t think Kovalev looked bad per se. It was definitely not his A or even B+ game, but he was never even close to being in trouble and generally controlled the fight. He mostly seemed frustrated he couldn’t put Chilemba down & out! I rated Chilemba as pretty good going in, so predictions he was getting blasted out within 6 were way off to me.
Chilemba definitely started connecting with the jab, but never to really do anything it except to score and keep Kovalev away. He never really seemed to set up any combinations or power punches with it. There were definitely some body shots here and there, but the scores that had him within a round or two seemed way off base to me. Every time he tried to exchange, they just seemed to fall over each other.
It did almost follow the normal Kovalev fight pattern. Slow start, Kovalev starts to land a little, lands some more, that big shot comes thru, and he jumps on them and finishes it. It did all that just slightly later than usual and Kovalev didn’t seem to have the stamina both within the rounds and within the fight to finish it. If that shot in the 7 had come a little later, I think he could’ve finished him off. Then normally once he has someone hurt at the end of a round, he jumps on top of them at the beginning. The next couple of rounds, he looked tired and seemed to rest until the very end of the round where he would really turn it on and hurt Chilemba. It looked like he never quite had the energy to go for the kill and resigned himself to the UD.
Overall I think it was a good fight for him like RJJ said at the end. He got good rounds in against an awkward, defensive fighter. Obviously this caliber of fight from him isn’t going to beat Ward, but he can learn something from it. That is definitely more than you can say for what Ward is going to get from Brand.
Chilemba definitely started connecting with the jab, but never to really do anything it except to score and keep Kovalev away. He never really seemed to set up any combinations or power punches with it. There were definitely some body shots here and there, but the scores that had him within a round or two seemed way off base to me. Every time he tried to exchange, they just seemed to fall over each other.
It did almost follow the normal Kovalev fight pattern. Slow start, Kovalev starts to land a little, lands some more, that big shot comes thru, and he jumps on them and finishes it. It did all that just slightly later than usual and Kovalev didn’t seem to have the stamina both within the rounds and within the fight to finish it. If that shot in the 7 had come a little later, I think he could’ve finished him off. Then normally once he has someone hurt at the end of a round, he jumps on top of them at the beginning. The next couple of rounds, he looked tired and seemed to rest until the very end of the round where he would really turn it on and hurt Chilemba. It looked like he never quite had the energy to go for the kill and resigned himself to the UD.
Overall I think it was a good fight for him like RJJ said at the end. He got good rounds in against an awkward, defensive fighter. Obviously this caliber of fight from him isn’t going to beat Ward, but he can learn something from it. That is definitely more than you can say for what Ward is going to get from Brand.
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