Agnew to try and outsmart Kovalev on Saturday

By Boxing News - 03/26/2014 - Comments

kovalev(Photo credit: HBO) By Allan Fox: #14 WBO Cedric Agnew (26-0, 13 KO’s) isn’t being given any chance at all against WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21 KO’s) in their fight on HBO this Saturday night at The Ballroom, Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. Agnew has an impressive record, but he’s not fought anyone nearly as good as Kovalev, and he’s not shown the kind of power or defensive skills needed to extend this fight.

Agnew, 27, still thinks he’s got the smarts and the skills to take the Russian fighter deep and beat him somehow. “The key to fighting any guy with power is to fight smart,” Agnew said to RingTV.

Agnew usually tries to slug with his opponents, but he’s going to have to try a different tact on Saturday because punching with Kovalev is probably not going to work for Agnew. He’s not had a knockout since 2012 despite the fact that he’s been fighting weak opposition. If Agnew can’t count on scoring a knockout on Saturday then it’s going to mean that he’ll need to focus almost entirely on his boxing skills and his defense to try and win a decision.

Agnew is going to need to be able to take a lot of big shots in this fight for him to have a chance to win, because he’s not going to be able to avoid all over Kovalev’s big punches. He might be able to avoid many of them if he can focus mainly on his defense, but he’ll still be losing rounds even when doing that.

Agnew has wins over Yusaf Mack, Alfredo Contreras, Zach Page, Otis Griffin and Billy Cunningham in his last five fights. Only one of those wins was by knockout and that was against the 5-12 Cunningham.

Kovalev has wins over Ismayl Sillah, Nathan Cleverly, Cornelius White, Gabriel Campillo, Lionell Thompson, Roman Simakov and Darnelle Boone in his last 7 fights. All of the wins have come by knockout. You can make a strong argument that all of those fighters would have an excellent chance of beating Agnew, even the journeyman Boone.

That kind of shows you what kind of fighter Kovalev is facing this Saturday in Agnew. HBO blessed the fight, but they likely did that based on Anew’s glossy unbeaten record rather than his actual talent and experience. He doesn’t stand a chance in this fight, and the only real question is can he make it the full 12 to lose by a decision or will he get knocked out.



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