Comments Thread For: Kovalev's Coach Explains Why Ward Will NOT Improve in Rematch

[moochi]

Ward doesn't need to improve, he just needs to not get knocked out.. And he wins.

Ward is that good that even when he is outboxed and schooled, that he still wins!

[Bronx2245]

Jackson is having a stellar year! Kovalev and Hopkins showed all his talents as a trainer! Jackson is right up there with Roach! Lol!

[KingHippo]

what are you watching? ward was holding and hitting kovalev so kovalev held him back in order to prevent that. you really couldn't see that? grabbing a guy ann hitting him in the nuts or with one free arm is not inside fighting or clean punching. what did you expect kovalev to do when ward grabbed him? stand upright and continue to be hit with illegal blows? he clinched him back to stop his cheating ass. he shouldn't have to do that but thats what happens when you have an inept ref.

any punch that was landed during a clinch or was setup because of a clinch is not a legal or clean punch. just like if you lowblow'd a guy and he doubles over in pain and then you hit him with a clean shot to the head it doesn't count because it was setup through illegal methods. ward setup and landed his "body work" illegally. not that it should matter since he lost even if you consider it as clean puncihing but if you score it correctly he loses by an even wider margin. if there were no clinching on ward's part he loses almost every round. the reason ward was clinching is because he couldn't box with kovalev so he had to cheat. he was not inside figthing. inside fighting is corrales castillo not grabbing the other guy and hitting him.

You're way too emotional

[soul_survivor]

Ward has fought ONE WAY his whole damn career. Be stiff and strong on the inside and work the opponent and frustrate him with short punches, elbows and forearms. When he is further away from the opponent, he pulls the old Bhop move, namely, jab, jab, right hand, lunge in with your head. It has worked extremely well against all but a handful of opponents. It's why I thought he'd beat Kovalev: too strong and tricky on the inside.

I never expected Kovalev to not only be good enough to counter all his work on the inside (found out he trained extensively in greco-roman wrestling) but also to completely negate Ward's range game. Kovalev was superior in every department.

The only thing Ward can improve is his strength and physicality but he can not add any new boxing tricks to his bag, not now, not on the wrong side of 30 and not against someone as astute as Kovalev.

Also, there's something else I'd like to point out and it's something people realised after the Kovalev fight: for all the hype and everyone talking about how great Ward's physical attributes are (e.g. hand speed, foot speed and reflexes) I said, time and time again (there was a whole thread where I had to fight off like 20 ****** hood**** on this) Ward's natural gifts just aren't that good compared to most top fighters throughout boxing history.

He is very simple to figure out and he gets hit quite a bit because his reflexes aren't particularly sharp and not are his hands all that quick and his feet are often flat not fleet. Kovalev exploited all that. I just wish I hadn't underrated Kovs inside game.

If Kov himself can work on his fitness down the stretch, he'll put a beating on Ward in the rematch...which is unlikely for at least another 6-8 months.

[ceylon mooney]

"repeat the win" is misleading
it was close but a clear win for kovalev, who decisively beat ward but lost to the three american judges

now we have ****** ward drama for the rematch. boxing has learned a lot of pro rasslin. its good business but bad sport.

for the record im a much bigger ward fan and favored him to win, but he clearly lost.

[ceylon mooney]

i also think ward can improve, and he fights more than one way. i think he can win a rematch, and i mean without the judging bein fixed.

[twosweethooks]

I hope Ward don't pull a May Jr move like chicken out then retire the wait for the top fighters to beat each other to death then come back and claim the P4P spot and claim the best ever which is the biggest joke of all !!

Ward needs to honor the contract !

Fight Kovalev and get beat down then KO'd then retire

[PunchyPotorff]

There is usually some truth and some non truth in most statements. I wouldn't say Ward can't or won't improve, but at this stage, his game is set, and there won't be very many changes. Kovalev could stand to fix some holes in his game if he wants to truly dominate the rematch, even though he had a lot of success in the fight. He did some great counter punching... but he just needs to do more. He needs to improve his stamina, and I think I read somewhere he'll have a strength and conditioning coach FNO. He needs to cut off the ring a little better. And he definitely needs to work on the uppercuts more. Plus LISTEN better to JDJ. Hopefully he can put it all together, now that he pretty much knows exactly what to expect from Ward. Now, if they can just keep Robert Byrd and Kenny Bayless away from the ring, get a better ref, maybe we'll have an honest rematch.

[oscar9992]

Both sides need to shut up and make rematch ASAP!

[kennethjohn]

he ran, yet he won every aspect of the inside game. he got his timing down and figured him out and won 5 of the last 6 rounds.