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The guy was ranked top 5 p4p even after he lost to Ward. Jesus Christ. Anyone who loses in boxing must be a bum.
***The Official SANCTIONED Sergey Kovalev vs. Igor Mikhalkin RBR Thread 10:00PM EST HBO***
- Thread starter PHATV
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"a little bit "<Lmaoo>
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Bivol is the future. Very fluid, and I like how he seems to be able to pull KOs out of nowhere without his opponent expecting it.
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I dont think youre getting what Im saying, or Im saying it wrong.
Kova was and is a top dog. But hes never been an especially talented fighter, if that makes sense? He has brutal power and is good fundamentally. Hes not a great boxer or defensive whiz etc.
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I think you might be writing him off. He outboxed Ward at range so effectively that Ward had to go inside. This is important. You need more than fundamentals and power to make someone as highly touted as Ward to change everything he is doing.
Kovalev has a great sense of distance and timing. He uses his feet to get out of trouble and does this well enough to keep the compubox numbers of his opponent surprisingly low for someone called a Krusher. Also, he mixes up his punch predictability, which is pretty impressive since he uses mostly jabs and straight rights.
Punchers don't usually get respect for their boxing, but guys like Kovalev and Golovkin are actually pretty aware boxers.
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I think you underestimate Kovalev's ability from mid-range. His jab is as good as pretty much anyone's in the sport. Ward has completely outjabbed pretty much everyone he has fought (guys like Kessler, Dawson, and Froch all had very good jabs of their own, and they were dominated in that area by Ward), and Kovalev outjabbed him in both fights. Kovalev's stamina, questionable durability (he clearly doesn't like it to the body), and lack of infighting ability let him down against Ward, but there are very few guys in the sport (perhaps no one else around the weight) who have the ability to exploit those flaws like Ward did.
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Not writing him off at all. Literally said hes still a top dog lol.
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But you reduced him to fundamentals and power, saying he isn't a good boxer. From that statement I proceeded to explicate why Kovalev was, in fact, a better boxer than you were giving him credit for.
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Good fundamentals.
I dont think hes better than a good boxer. Certainly not special, which is what I said originally. His power is his meat and potatoes and can carry/conceal his abilities. Thats where his jab shines. He can wreck you with it.
Its not even a knock on him. Every fighter has something theyre best at.
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I think PUO3 is distinguishing between "special" and "elite". I agree that Kov isn't special. But being truly special is rare. Of the fighters today, very few stand out to me as genuinely special. Kov is elite, but special? special is reserved for guys who will stand out in history. Maybe that's Kov and we haven't seen his best yet, maybe Ward (who I would argue is special) is just that good, but I don't think Kov is "special" yet.
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He made Ward opt to not box him and prefer to fight him inside. He's that good, not 'special' (which seems like an impossible word to get a consensus on, anyway). He's that good but there are better pure boxers.
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Fighting Kov at range is stupid. His power is as real as it gets. You fight him inside you take away a lot of that. (Not that its an easy thing to do.)
Probably sounds like I was shitting on the guy but that wasnt my intention. Im a huge fan of what Kova does in the ring even if I think hes a bit of a POS.
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Kov is talented as hell, hits ridiculously hard, has the best jab in his entire division. He is a special fighter for sure BUT he has only dealt with serious adversity twice and failed miserably both times. The first time he tried his best but got schooled and ended up too scared to even throw hard punches so he lost a decision. Then he had a shot at erasing the first loss(that he blamed everyone else besides himself for)and he got destroyed physically and mentally so much worse than he did the first time. He got humiliated and beat up and hurt and stopped by a guy without serious power. Those loses will define his entire legacy not only because of how big the fights were but also because he refuses to acknowledge either one. Just last week he said again that Ward is a "nobody" and by retiring he proved Kov was the real winner of those fights.
He is delusional, can't take it to the body, can't deal with dirty tactics, looks to the ref when he is in trouble and blames the entire world for his losses but not himself.
So yes he is special and a very talented fighter but in those true championship moments where you need to be great he fails.
He is delusional, can't take it to the body, can't deal with dirty tactics, looks to the ref when he is in trouble and blames the entire world for his losses but not himself.
So yes he is special and a very talented fighter but in those true championship moments where you need to be great he fails.
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He was an undefeated fighter who was ranked in the top 5 p4p. But since he lost to the best fighter in the world, once by close decision, he was never anything special?
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I get what you're saying. He's a top level guy for his time but not likely going to hit legendary status, which isn't an insult.
There must be some special attribute(s) in Kovalev that has made him the force he is in the LH division; else, we’re talking Voodoo or some esoteric form of boxing... However, pinpointing what makes him such a dominating fighter seems difficult to determine. We may say Kovalev isn’t much faster than the median, has good but not exceptional defense, power etc. Alternatively, we may say he is slower than A, gets hits easier than B, and punches weaker than C; yet when he combines whatever speed, defense, power, etc. he has, he (the whole package) is likely to defeat consistently A, B, and C... The same we can say about others (e.g., B-Hop, for example)
I’m of the opinion that in the amateur arena, the individual skills/attributes of an boxer tend to determine predominantly his/her rate of success; but in professional boxing, you need more than that, you need to transform yourselves into a fighter (I’m referring, for example, to the fighter vs boxer difference that Emmanuel Stuart highlighted in reference to Lennox Lewis and Klitschko). And when it comes to fighting tough (quasi sadistic at times), Kovalev is second to none. And we should recall that as an amateur he was only defeated by elite Russian boxers.
I’m of the opinion that in the amateur arena, the individual skills/attributes of an boxer tend to determine predominantly his/her rate of success; but in professional boxing, you need more than that, you need to transform yourselves into a fighter (I’m referring, for example, to the fighter vs boxer difference that Emmanuel Stuart highlighted in reference to Lennox Lewis and Klitschko). And when it comes to fighting tough (quasi sadistic at times), Kovalev is second to none. And we should recall that as an amateur he was only defeated by elite Russian boxers.
