That looked staged as hell.

[eco1]

That thing looked staged a/f.

EDIT: Talking about the fight as a whole here. Not just the KO moment. From the very beginning, Kovalev was limp and throwing shots without any power on them at all. He fought like he had zero intent of winning the fight.

yeah, I think this is a disgrace of a fight.
As I said, 3 rehydration clauses, nt one, but 3, then 4 and a half weeks to prepare after the hard Tarde fight, and anything else we don't even know. I am sorry but this is what is wrong with this **** nowadays, looks more like a Wrestling script than boxing.

I think I am half done with this sport.

[eco1]

Kovalev just said in the post fight interview that Buddy McGirt told him to not open up to avoid body shot counters. The gameplan was to box Canelo and keep him off balance with the jab. How ******ed are you people?

which is in the script!

[eco1]

every single time Sergey threw a right he got countered hard, Canelo was the more dominant fighter

So what you are telling me is that a midget without any real power was dominating a guy known to have that power. So in a bizarre world, Clenelo was the puncher and Kova the sheep?

I mean, it is like Tyson or Wilder fighting Usyk and running away from him because Usyk is coming to KO them with one punch.

That is weird.

I would put my money on Usyk by UD against Wilder, but if someone is Ko'ing anyone it would be Wilder Ko Usyk. Same for Kovalev vs Clenelo.

I am sorry, but this was BS.

[eco1]

Kovalev was clearly instructed to take EVERYTHING off his shots. He threw and landed only one right hand to the body (around round 3 or 4), and it clearly had an effect on Canelo. He then spent the next few rounds throwing half-assed jabs, never working the body once.

The finish was legit, seeing as Kovalev has a cracked glass chin these days, but the fact he telegraphed any hard right hand he threw = planned. And they got the perfect trainer for the job. Buddy McGirt, the guy who tried to get Gatti to out-jab and outbox Floyd. Of course a guy that brilliant would advise a puncher to eliminate his greatest assets in order to "win rounds" against one of boxing's biggest cash cows.

that was on round 5 and he lifted Clenelo of the floor, then he went back to doing nothing like he knew he almost blew the thing.

Sergey did not use power punches, they knew Canelo cannot take punches from Kova.

I am not buying this one.

[John Locke]

lol staged how? It was a clean KO...

You have to have Canelo P4P #1 atm, he's just doing more than anyone else.

[MMA >>> BOXING]

And anyone who thinks that PRIZE fighting can't be fixed is living in a dream world.

If he made a fortune, did he lose?

nobody said prize fighting cant be fixed genius. but if u seriously think it was a dive or kov wasnt fighting the way he supposed to than u should go see a doctor.

[Teddy Brenner]

In the first round, Sergio Mora said that Kovalev was "following the script perfectly".

I know that he was referring to McGirt's game plan, but I thought it was a curious choice of words.

[TMTForever99]

two re hydration clauses sapped kov's strength which could explain why he had NO POWER on his punches

[vwelsh]

This is getting sad. If you look at the postings majority are new to the game. Don’t understand boxing at all. Kovalev didn’t throw those big shots because he knows canelo is middle weight fast and light heavy weight strong. And will counter to his weak ass body. And he did every time. His best asset was a good jab. It’s fast and reasonable strong. He traded speed for power and increased his volume this fight. Not a bad strategy. Canelo is a sturdy 160 lbs. walks around at 175-180. On top of that he’s strong. He walked thru Jacobs and GGG. Kovalev would have probably been out of there sooner if he thru more power shots. To say it’s a dive is making YOU look bad. People are dying in the ring these days. Kovalev has enough money. He’s not going to risk his life.

Do me a favor. Learn the game. If you don’t like canelo. That’s ok. I don’t like a lot of boxers. I actually had Kovalev with a slim margin. Had it played out and he got the win I would have been ok.

I don’t care for Davis but he’s putting it on people. Same with D. Garcia. Can’t stand him but dude shows up. Sergei has always had stamina issues late in the fight. Canelo did Mayweather a game plan , fight your pace and let the fight come to you.

Canelo is strong. This is not debatable. We knew this. He caught Kovalev really clean. Amir Khan KO clean. Ref called it because this game is dead serious and he was out. Guys need to calm down and enjoy a good fight.

[JTfloyd]

that was on round 5 and he lifted Clenelo of the floor, then he went back to doing nothing like he knew he almost blew the thing.

Sergey did not use power punches, they knew Canelo cannot take punches from Kova.

I am not buying this one.

Yeah, Kovalev played the "Just happy to be here" part and did what he was told. I love how some people are insisting that this couldn't POSSIBLY be a fixed fight (up until the ending, as weird as that sounds), when the ginger is literally promoted by a guy who took a blatant dive against Hopkins... who was CLEARLY taking it easy on DLH as well. Except in this instance, the bigger, stronger, harder hitting fighter was clearly shot, and has little to no punch resistance (which is why he previously got knocked out by a guy with a 50% KO ratio), which lead to him getting stopped by Canelo, who wasn't even a big puncher at 154 or 160. Perfect cherrypick by DLH's boy. Or maybe some people are delusional enough to think Canelo would do the same against a prime Kovalev as well. This is Boxingscene after all.