From Russia with love, Kovalev finds his place in US

Seriously gang, if this bout doesn’t deserve to be on pay per view, then what bout does?

Jackson rejects the notion that Ward vs. Kovalev is a simple fight between a puncher and a boxer. This fight has all of the makings of a great bout because of the different styles (hard puncher in Kovalev and counter puncher in Ward) that usually produces a classic bout.

“We are very excited to have both Sonny Frederickson and Tyler McCreary fight on, arguably, the biggest card of the year”, said Rick Torres, President of Victory Sports & Entertainment. I will kick him if he does something dirty to me.

In Ward’s case, most people don’t, but that’s partly because most people haven’t often seen him box. It’s a lot more going on than just those one attributes. It’s not in a negative way.

“Provisionally, the rematch with Braehmer is my next fight”, Cleverly said. “Otherwise, he’ll be playing catch up”. You look at a guy like [Adrien] Broner and he is best known for making a fool of himself on WorldStarHipHop, but Ward is 10 times the professional that guy is.

“It seems like this fight is built around Kovalev’s punching power”, Hunter said. I am a fan of both of them, obviously for different reasons. It’s what’s in [the heart]. Saturday is boxing’s ideal response – and could change the sport by leading to more mega-fight deals. His Russian fans will get the fight free, with the nation’s Channel 1 lined up to broadcast the bout live in his home country.

You’ve stepped up from Super Middleweight not because you can longer make 168 pounds but because you want to take on the best and take on new challenges.

For his part, Kovalev also fought two bouts to stay busy as he took out Jean Pascal for a second time and then went on to decision Isaac Chilemba in a fight that saw Kovalev return to Russian Federation for a fight for the first time since December of 2011.

“Kovalev’s right hand is impressive, but he tips it off”, Hunter said. It’s usually an accumulation of punches that get his knockouts. This Saturday night on HBO PPV, Andre Ward is in search of building his legacy.

If Ward can slick his way past Kovalev, it will still be worth it for me. Why? I believe this fight will make it to the championship rounds and has a high probability of the outcome being left in the hands of the judges. “It’s unsafe. Angry, you can make mistakes”, Hunter said. He said don’t worry about it, be patient, we’ll go through that and I will bring to life the light heavyweight division. De La Rosa has suffered two back to back losses since his win over Angulo but both have come at the hands of two previously undefeated prospects in Hugo Centeno, JR. and Jason Quigley.

Q: How would you break down this match-up? He goes for the body now. I think it will be a technical chess match in that ring Saturday night.

Dawson was weight-drained in their fight and had difficulty performing anywhere near his peak, but Scully admits Ward would have been a very hard opponent for Dawson under the best of circumstances. You are supposed to have a team to take care of that to take the pressure off the fighter. “Before skills slow down, you develop other facets”. But if you are thinking about betting, maximize your potential winnings by adding in the method of victory.

Hunter assessed that Kovalev has taken the exact opposite approach.

“Whatever Kovalev comes with, you have to have the ability to adapt and offset. Everything they’re writing about him is true”. If he’s comfortable with it, that’s fine. And believe it or not, I feel led to make certain decisions and I feel led to not make certain decisions. “[Kovalev] walks around like that because they want him to, maybe he thinks that’s who he is”.