Tweet
I was going to post this in the fight thread but the post got too big for that. I think Kovalev's rise to prominence and fall from grace is a pretty interesting story and I think he's one of boxing's more interesting personalities, so I wanted to collect my thoughts on the way his career has gone in recent times.
Kovalev ruled the division by fear for a long time, he was the guy with the reputation of being a huge puncher as well as a bit of a psycho who enjoys hurting people and knocking them out, and showed no remorse after one of his early opponents died. If I had to pick a moment that I feel sums up Kovalev's old image as a LHW monster, I'd either think of him gloating and taunting Ismail Sillakh as he lay unconscious by the edge of the ring, or him stating that he carried Jean Pascal through rounds just so he could keep hurting him and beating him up.
However, and I know how corny and cliched this sounds by now, but Ward really did take something from him. Not so much his "soul" like I and many others have previously said, but his reputation for sure. After Ward beat him, despite how narrow and / or controversial those wins were, the image of the unbeatable juggernaut psycho Russian was more or less dispelled. He didn't help himself either, after the first loss he came across as a whiner and a sore loser, had a bit of a meltdown and lost the rapport he had with his trainer (very foolish, I always thought JDJ told him the right things in his corner.) As a result the allure of the dangerous psychopath ****er just kind of unravelled into an image of someone who was just a guy with a lot of pretty serious defects in his personality (self-centred, bad temper, bully, racist etc.)
As soon as that allure was dispelled it was like the cloak dropped from around the weaknesses in his game too - having just seen his KO at the hands of Alvarez it just illustrates perfectly how dismal his defense is for a fighter at this level. The signs were there before, eg. the KD he took from Blake Caparello, but this fight really laid those flaws bare. I don't think he has a weak chin, in fact if his first fight against Pascal is anything to go by it's actually pretty strong. However, unless you have a Provodnikov level chin you just can't eat the kind of big bomb he took from Alvarez that led to the first KD and get away with it, and he just took it from a mile away with his left hand practically down by his waist. The other two KDs aren't much better - he has his hands up for the last one, but he was already too badly hurt and it's a weak guard that Alvarez just goes around to get the KO.
He's still a dangerous puncher, as he was punishing Alvarez just a couple of rounds earlier, and he even has a few special trademark tricks that amplify the danger his power poses, but with the flaws in his defense exposed he's significantly less dangerous than he was once perceived to be - and at this stage of his career he's not likely to rectify those flaws, especially as if JDJ is to be believed he doesn't like being told what to do by his trainers and is overall a difficult man to deal with. He used to be able to get away with it because his reputation inspired fear and his opponents largely ran away from him, allowing him to lead off without having to worry too much about what was coming back, but now that guys know they can step up and blast back and probably do some damage because of his poor defenses, that's not likely to be the case going forward.
I think Kovalev could be in danger of becoming the light-heavy version of late-stage Lucas Matthysse, ie. someone who's a hard puncher, but with an otherwise limited skillset and mental frailties. Kovalev has already accomplished significantly more than Matthysse, having been the division kingpin for a few years, but he just took a brutal defeat from a guy who, up until now, has really only existed on the fringes of the top level, and it seems like the only way for him is down now. I previously thought he would have whipped Adonis Stevenson, but now I'm not so sure because I think Stevenson's style would have been tailor-made to exploit his weaknesses.
Anyone else have any thoughts or opinions on Sergey Kovalev?
Kovalev ruled the division by fear for a long time, he was the guy with the reputation of being a huge puncher as well as a bit of a psycho who enjoys hurting people and knocking them out, and showed no remorse after one of his early opponents died. If I had to pick a moment that I feel sums up Kovalev's old image as a LHW monster, I'd either think of him gloating and taunting Ismail Sillakh as he lay unconscious by the edge of the ring, or him stating that he carried Jean Pascal through rounds just so he could keep hurting him and beating him up.
However, and I know how corny and cliched this sounds by now, but Ward really did take something from him. Not so much his "soul" like I and many others have previously said, but his reputation for sure. After Ward beat him, despite how narrow and / or controversial those wins were, the image of the unbeatable juggernaut psycho Russian was more or less dispelled. He didn't help himself either, after the first loss he came across as a whiner and a sore loser, had a bit of a meltdown and lost the rapport he had with his trainer (very foolish, I always thought JDJ told him the right things in his corner.) As a result the allure of the dangerous psychopath ****er just kind of unravelled into an image of someone who was just a guy with a lot of pretty serious defects in his personality (self-centred, bad temper, bully, racist etc.)
As soon as that allure was dispelled it was like the cloak dropped from around the weaknesses in his game too - having just seen his KO at the hands of Alvarez it just illustrates perfectly how dismal his defense is for a fighter at this level. The signs were there before, eg. the KD he took from Blake Caparello, but this fight really laid those flaws bare. I don't think he has a weak chin, in fact if his first fight against Pascal is anything to go by it's actually pretty strong. However, unless you have a Provodnikov level chin you just can't eat the kind of big bomb he took from Alvarez that led to the first KD and get away with it, and he just took it from a mile away with his left hand practically down by his waist. The other two KDs aren't much better - he has his hands up for the last one, but he was already too badly hurt and it's a weak guard that Alvarez just goes around to get the KO.
He's still a dangerous puncher, as he was punishing Alvarez just a couple of rounds earlier, and he even has a few special trademark tricks that amplify the danger his power poses, but with the flaws in his defense exposed he's significantly less dangerous than he was once perceived to be - and at this stage of his career he's not likely to rectify those flaws, especially as if JDJ is to be believed he doesn't like being told what to do by his trainers and is overall a difficult man to deal with. He used to be able to get away with it because his reputation inspired fear and his opponents largely ran away from him, allowing him to lead off without having to worry too much about what was coming back, but now that guys know they can step up and blast back and probably do some damage because of his poor defenses, that's not likely to be the case going forward.
I think Kovalev could be in danger of becoming the light-heavy version of late-stage Lucas Matthysse, ie. someone who's a hard puncher, but with an otherwise limited skillset and mental frailties. Kovalev has already accomplished significantly more than Matthysse, having been the division kingpin for a few years, but he just took a brutal defeat from a guy who, up until now, has really only existed on the fringes of the top level, and it seems like the only way for him is down now. I previously thought he would have whipped Adonis Stevenson, but now I'm not so sure because I think Stevenson's style would have been tailor-made to exploit his weaknesses.
Anyone else have any thoughts or opinions on Sergey Kovalev?
Comment