Is Kovalev really that far gone?

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Ward took his soul, hasn’t been the same since. Haven’t seen ‘them krusher’ since the first Ward fight.

Same thing happened with Prince nas once barerra boxed his ass.

In the case of Ward-Kovalev, he literally "boxed his ass". Too bad his testicles were in the way.

lol took his soul. He clearly lost the first fight and the 2nd fight is in those "boxing lowlights" youtube compilations with the Golota-Bowe fight now.

Eleider and Canelo beat Kovalev. Ward found ways not to (officially) lose. You don't take anyone's soul that way.

[GhostofDempsey]

Question: When was Kovalev ever great? Who were his best wins prior to his fights with Ward? Pascal, Hopkins. Beating him is a good win, not necessarily a great win.

[bojangles1987]

I don't know how anyone could watch this fight or most of his recent fights and NOT think he's that far gone.

[Jsmooth9876]

It was fairly obvious to anyone paying attention that Kovalev was a faded guy from.the one who fought Ward a bunch of years back but he still had the name and aura surrounding him as a big hitting KO artist 15 lbs above Canelos weight.

The reality is Kovalev was probably the 4th best LHW champ before the Beterbiev-OG fight and would have been stopped by those 2 and Bivol.

Canelo gets credit for going up and fighting him but it's not close to Mikey going to fight Spence when someone moves up and faces a prime elite talent.

[Boxing_1013]

It's not a single factor.

In order of biggest to smallest factors:

1. Even 3 months between brutal professional 12 round title fights is pushing it (A month of recovery straight into a shorter 8 week camp). 2 months with the fight announced half way through is sacrifical lamb status. You're really just recovering, holding a media workout then weighing in. There's no "camp".

2. He is definitely damaged. Not even counting the Eleider KO, he's taken some hard shots in his past several fights and got screwed hard by the officials in both Ward fights, which I think emotionally would have caused many fighters to hang them up.

3. Duva admitted he starved himself to make 175 when he was younger. If you're struggling with something like that in your late 20s, it's gonna be a near-death experience in your late 30s.

He made 12 million dollars to show up and move his arms around though. He knew what he was doing. That was for his family.

In the case of Ward-Kovalev, he literally "boxed his ass". Too bad his testicles were in the way.

lol took his soul. He clearly lost the first fight and the 2nd fight is in those "boxing lowlights" youtube compilations with the Golota-Bowe fight now.

Eleider and Canelo beat Kovalev. Ward found ways not to (officially) lose. You don't take anyone's soul that way.

I don't know how anyone could watch this fight or most of his recent fights and NOT think he's that far gone.

Good posts, thanks

[DuckAdonis]

It was more the rehydration clause and the fact that Kovalev didn't have time to recover from that Yarde fight (where he was almost KO'd) that caused his punch resistance to be sheeit

[Boxing_1013]

Question: When was Kovalev ever great? Who were his best wins prior to his fights with Ward? Pascal, Hopkins. Beating him is a good win, not necessarily a great win.

It was fairly obvious to anyone paying attention that Kovalev was a faded guy from.the one who fought Ward a bunch of years back but he still had the name and aura surrounding him as a big hitting KO artist 15 lbs above Canelos weight.

The reality is Kovalev was probably the 4th best LHW champ before the Beterbiev-OG fight and would have been stopped by those 2 and Bivol.

Canelo gets credit for going up and fighting him but it's not close to Mikey going to fight Spence when someone moves up and faces a prime elite talent.

Good posts, thanks...I think Kov on his day was a very formidable challenge, good power and jab, and good enough punch resistance...his power and stamina seem to have faded, and with that his punch resistance, certainly late in a fight.

[Jsmooth9876]

Question: When was Kovalev ever great? Who were his best wins prior to his fights with Ward? Pascal, Hopkins. Beating him is a good win, not necessarily a great win.

The guy arguably beat Andre Ward who was considered at least top 2-3 P4P at the time.

So we really should just separate the past Kovalev from the current one that Canelo knocked out. Same guy but 2 very different points in his career...

[SplitSecond]

Ko'd by the girst 2-3 good shots? Kovalev was eating flush bombs all night. Him getting stopped wasnt surprising.

[GhostofDempsey]

Good posts, thanks...I think Kov on his day was a very formidable challenge, good power and jab, and good enough punch resistance...his power and stamina seem to have faded, and with that his punch resistance, certainly late in a fight.

Kovalev was fading in the last couple of rounds. Which is why he ended up on the ropes more frequently. Any time a fighter is fatigued the first thing they do is lean on the ropes. He was out-boxing Canelo for ten rounds (I gave Canelo 2 maybe 3 rounds), but his stamina faded. I don't know how Kovalev of two years ago does against Canelo. Buddy did some good work with Sergei developing his jab.