You know.... I still can't believe people actually think Canelo vs Kovalev was legit.

[HitmanTommy]

Kovalev's legal issues
Kovalev's money problems
Kovalev's right hand virtually non existent.

What a joke that was

[Sun_Tzu]

It was a weird fight.

[Marchegiano]

[bigtyivier2k2]

And it was also 2 months after Kovalev fought Yarde.

If Canelo fought even the Kovalev of the first Ward fight hw would have been stopped

[TernceBudCharlo]

Nothing about that fight was legit. But even if it was, who cares? Kovalev was washed up utter human filth and that point. He didn't come to win the fight. You mean to tell me he was afraid of getting hit by one of Canelo's pitter patter punches at light heavyweight but wasn't afraid to get hit by guys like Jean Pascal, Andre Ward, and others? Please.

[TernceBudCharlo]

And it was also 2 months after Kovalev fought Yarde.

If Canelo fought even the Kovalev of the first Ward fight hw would have been stopped

But he never would have fought a Kovalev like that, just like how he'll never fight Beterbiev or Bivol today. He had to pick the weakest, most washed up, pathetic, money desperate "champ" at 175.

[F!x]

Kovalev was battered by Yarde in one of the hardest fights of his career, although ultimately he won. Yarde landed more punches on Kovalev than any fighter before him according to the punch stats. He had zero recovery time, had to go straight in to Canelo fight which was only 9 weeks later. Kovalev was operating at around 50 - 60% against Canelo. After the fight he said that he wanted to postpone it in order to have more recovery time from the Yarde fight but Canelo said it was now or never.

[TheSlickster]

Was definitely a strange fight. Kovalev probably didn’t recover long enough after the Yarde fight(2 months). A shame he didn’t commit to the jab as Canelo look confused at times whenever Kovalev was able to, just like the two GGG fights

[MeanestNiceGuy]

Actually watched it again last night and Kovalev looked pitiful...he's been that way since the first Eleider Alvarez KO loss. Since then, he became gun-shy and threw pitty pat punches to simply rack up points and get through the fight.

And it's been mentioned in the thread already...Kovalev had taken a lot of punishment in the Yarde fight just short of 3 months before the Canelo fight. I'm sure he had very little recovery time and time to train. He was compensated for it, however.

Hopefully that was the end of Kovalev because he's practically useless without his power and confidence. I mean, this guy went from The Krusher to The Kruiser...he settled for racking up points and surviving what he'd easily dished out over the years...knockouts.

[Willy Wanker]

Kovalev gave one of the worst performances I've ever seen.