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I think Kovalev should take a fight or two in the build up to the rematch otherwise,if he loses the immediate rematch,that will be the end of his boxing career.Comment
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I believe the same thing.Comment
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I'm not saying anything that I didn't say since the beginning of the negotiations for this fight.
I thought HBO rushed Ward into this fight and I stick by that. I feel had Ward had at least 2 more fights, What we saw in the 2nd half of the fight, would've been more evident since the opening bell.
But if you think that by fighting Paul Smith, Barerra and Brand in the last 3 years was enough to give us the best Ward last night, then cool.
I, personally, disagree.
HBO wanted to see Ward get KTFO so they rushed him into this fight. Ward got the victory don't get me wrong, but he could've been much better had he been given more time.Comment
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If you think about it, there is a pretty solid argument for the more technical fighter winning the rematch in this case because of one simple fact, in a way they already had two fights so to speak because of how the fight went early and then later. Ward adjusted and won most of the second half. I believe that shows that the more technical fighter argument is solid for Ward winning the rematch. I'm going with my fav for the rematch as well, Ward. He seemed to start slow and I think he realizes that and if he can avoid the power early, he can adjust sooner and win by a bigger margin. The rematch may just be the 13th round if Ward has, as it has appeared, figured Kov out. The biggest difference for Ward in the second half was that instead of backing in a straight line, he was turning Kov and went to the inside landing a lot of body punches. That's what I call a solid adjustment. The biggest secret he discovered as well as everyone watching is that Kov is clearly not that good of inside fighter.Last edited by richardt; 11-20-2016, 10:45 PM.Comment
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Kovalev did enough to win in his own mind and many of us agree that he did. He wasn't in some landslide defecit early to be expect to make major adjustments so there goes your first point.
Kovalev said after the fight that he essentially was proving he could outbox him and is going to turn it up a notch and there isn't really a reason to believe that. I expect Kovalev to start even more aggressively and use his jab to set up big shots and take Ward out early or at least test him hard early on. What adjustments will Ward make when under Kovalev's firepower at a higher rate? I think he breaks, Kovalev does more damage to Ward than vica versa as we've seen, he's going to have to fight a war and I'm not sure he survives it.Comment
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Kovalev don't need to do anything differently because he already beat Ward easily doing what he did. If anyone needs to adjust it's Ward. Knocked down, outlanded, landed less than 10 power shots to Kovalev's head ALL NIGHT, less than ONE PER ROUND. Just insane. I remember Floyd-Maidana I all the *****s said head shots count more than dirty inside body shots, but now they saying THE EXACT OPPOSITE.
Anyway Kovalev won easy so Ward better go back to the drawing board.Comment
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HBO wanted to see Ward lose, so they gave him a robbery decision? Your conspiracy theory doesn't even make sense. HBO had a high guarantee paying Ward so all they wanted, after five years of bull****, was for him to actually deliver fights they could sell and make money off of. That's all. They wanted to make Ward a star they could make money off of, and to do that they needed to have him fight someone good, and "win."
Did they want Ward to fight Kovalev soon? Of course! Because why would they want to pay Ward millions to fight nobodies? Of course HBO wants its fighters to fight the best fights as often as possible! That's just ****ing common sense. But somehow you translate that to "they wanted it asap because they wanted Ward to lose!"
I mean, they let Ward have three fights... Smith, Barrera, Brand. It's not their fault Ward picked who he picked. Ward could have picked better competition to prepare him. That's on him. But to act like HBO giving Ward "only" three tune-up fights (including Smith on BET) means they wanted him to get KTFO or lose makes no sense. You guys bought into the bull**** narrative that HBO wanted Kovalev to win because he's more exciting. Since when does HBO care about excitement? They wanted the black American gold medalist to win so they could try to create their next AMERICAN pay-per-view attraction, and that's why he got the robbery decision.
Seriously guys, use your damn brains. Ward gets a gift decision, Kellerman sells it like a used car salesman all night, but you still think HBO wanted Ward to lose to a Russian who can barely speak English and has no American fan base at all? After Floyd Mayweather just made half a billion dollars on one fight, you seriously think HBO was thinking "yeah that model worked, but let's get Ward knocked out instead and try a new model with a Russian who can't speak English!"
In what world would anyone believe that? Everyone knows HBO would do the opposite. "Floyd just made half a billion dollars. Floyd is black, American, and his style generates hatred and interest. Ward is also black, American, has a similar style, and a gold medal. We can probably repeat the PPV success if Ward wins."
That's much more logical, and now we know it's exactly what happened.Comment
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