Boxing insiders give best bets for Kovalev-Ward

What TV channel is Ward v Kovalev on?

Can Kovalev tangle with Ward on the inside and dictate his own pace against a ring general?

Unlike Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev is not proficient in cutting off the ring. He will win the rounds on work rate and make Ward very defensive.

He dominated the ancient but still crafty Bernard Hopkins in 2014, forcing him into retirement, at least temporarily. And a big part of Kovalev’s success is he is very hard to read. Even in Kovalev’s two fights with Jean Pascal, he was uncomfortable with the speed, power and the counter punching. Sergey has to come out of the gate and establish his power, his strength and his boxing abilities.

Many believe your only chance to win is your power, to trap Ward and stand pounding on him. “He can not let Ward get ahead early and have to try to play catch-up”.

How did your upbringing in poverty make you the fighter you are today? .

Although Ward has showed time and time again that he has the skills to beat great fighters such as Edwin Rodriguez, Chad Dawson and Carl Froch, people question if S.O.G. has the chin to withstand an attack such as Kovalev’s. As far as this town is concerned, until you make it here, you’re just another slot-playing, blackjack-praying tourist who thinks he can beat the house.

RJ: “Both of them would be really good fights, very hard fights to fight”. There are no subsidies from the government to help you out. “Believe me, there’s a lot of haters. It’s going to come down to who wants it more”. “Because we now have direct contact to them, it would be easier to talk about when there will be a rematch.”. “I love both countries, which is why I have two houses, in Russian Federation and America”. Media is only difference this time because this is such big fight. Once Kovalev realizes that he’s unable to land his power shots when he’s loading up, he’s going to start decreasing the power on his punches in an effort to land. Because Kovalev is such an intelligent boxer who employs subtle feints, Ward needs to consistently give him different looks. From November 2013 until June 2015, Ward did not fight. For Ward, to lose is to very likely disappear for back into boxing’s shadows. He has had to win most of his battles with ring smarts.

“They are not feeling those punches”. Those are Ward’s biggest advantages.

The biggest fight of 2016 comes around this weekend as unbeaten superstars Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev scrap with three light heavyweight world titles on the line. Is this still your opinion?

Stylistically, this match-up does set up as a “boxer vs puncher” type of bout with Ward being the former, and Kovalev the latter. On November 19 we will see if he has corrected them. His decline will not be as visible as Ward’s will be. There can only be one that claims the crown of the world’s best though and we’ll find out the identity of that man this Saturday night.

Ward was expected to follow in the footsteps of other American Olympic champions who went on to become stars in the professional ranks.

Ward wants what Ali had with Joe Frazier and what Leonard had with Roberto Duran. Kovalev’s biggest flaw is that he can tend to be too offensive and forget about his head movement. Is this still your prediction, Kovalev by KO or TKO?

“I’m not chasing fame”, Ward said. “It’s new motivation for me, I really like to disappoint these people”. His feet are very good, he can be very elusive. He knows how to box. “I think that the victor of this fight should be pound-for-pound number one”.

“It’s a brilliant fight, probably the best in the whole of boxing at the moment, because it’s such a contrast of styles”, Cleverly told ESPN.

Q: What must Chilemba do in this fight in order to win?