I picked Hopkins to beat Kovalev because Agnew kinda exposed Sergey as being a lil bit mentally weak. Kovalev didn't respond well to the rough stuff and being cut. He did a lot of crying and complaining. I picked Hopkins because I thought he could better what Agnew did. And because I underrated Kovalev's technical boxing skills. Kovalev is an elite fighter.
BUT, when you put him in the ring with a fellow elite fighter that will get in there and rough up Sergey, his mental weakness is fully exposed. Immediately after the first fight, I picked Kovalev to KO Ward in a rematch. I had Ward winning thr first fight. But, I thought he fought as well as he possibly could amd barely got by. Plus, Ward couldn't outbox Kovalev. I don't pay attention much to prefight buildup. But Kovalev's attitude during the buildup was very bizarre to be. He acted like a guy that was trying to convince himself he could beat Ward. His behavior was so weird, it made me change my pick. And right on cue, when Ward started hitting him with hard body shots, maybe one or two strayed a lil low. It broke Kovalev mentally. You could see it in the third/fourth round.
I think part of Kovalev's problem is that he's one of these guys that believes his own hype. I think Kovalev totally bought in thr the whole fake ass Ivan Drago, "I must break you" nonsense. I think he totally bought in to being this killer that folks are risking life and limb by entering the ring with him. And in Ward, he found a guy that he couldn't intimidate. And he couldn't out-fight. That's the unique thing about the Ward-Kovalev rivalry. Ward is supposed to be the master boxer and Kovalev is supposed to be the hardpunching wrecking machine. But Kovalev outboxed Ward a lot of the time. And it was Ward who was our fighting Kovalev and breaking him down with hard body shots throughout the fight.
Kovalev is mentally weak. He's also very fragile. Ward has pretty much mentally ****d him.And I'm not sure this guy is gonna be able to pull himself together minus his mystique
BUT, when you put him in the ring with a fellow elite fighter that will get in there and rough up Sergey, his mental weakness is fully exposed. Immediately after the first fight, I picked Kovalev to KO Ward in a rematch. I had Ward winning thr first fight. But, I thought he fought as well as he possibly could amd barely got by. Plus, Ward couldn't outbox Kovalev. I don't pay attention much to prefight buildup. But Kovalev's attitude during the buildup was very bizarre to be. He acted like a guy that was trying to convince himself he could beat Ward. His behavior was so weird, it made me change my pick. And right on cue, when Ward started hitting him with hard body shots, maybe one or two strayed a lil low. It broke Kovalev mentally. You could see it in the third/fourth round.
I think part of Kovalev's problem is that he's one of these guys that believes his own hype. I think Kovalev totally bought in thr the whole fake ass Ivan Drago, "I must break you" nonsense. I think he totally bought in to being this killer that folks are risking life and limb by entering the ring with him. And in Ward, he found a guy that he couldn't intimidate. And he couldn't out-fight. That's the unique thing about the Ward-Kovalev rivalry. Ward is supposed to be the master boxer and Kovalev is supposed to be the hardpunching wrecking machine. But Kovalev outboxed Ward a lot of the time. And it was Ward who was our fighting Kovalev and breaking him down with hard body shots throughout the fight.
Kovalev is mentally weak. He's also very fragile. Ward has pretty much mentally ****d him.And I'm not sure this guy is gonna be able to pull himself together minus his mystique
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