kovalev By Allan Fox: WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (24-0-1, 22 KOs) will be defending his title against #10 WBO Blake Caparello (19-0-1, 6 KOs) this Saturday night in a triple-header telecast on HBO from the Revel Resort, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.

The 27-year-old Caparello feels like he’s been overlooked by Kovalev and his team, as they’re interested in more seemingly in fights against WBC 175 pound champion Adonis Stevenson and IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

Caparello is seen as a win already in the bag for Team Kovalev. But Caparello has ideas of his own, as he believes he’s going to beat Hopkins and get a fight against Stevenson for himself.

“I get the sense they are looking past me. I am very confident myself,” Caparello said via Dan Rafael of ESPN. “I know I am going to win and I already told [promoter] Lou [DiBella] to get me a unification fight with Adonis Stevenson after I beat Kovalev.”

For Caparello to win this fight he’s going to need to use a great deal of movement to keep from getting hit a lot by Kovalev. Caparello, to his credit, does move well around the ring, and he’s got a nifty shoulder roll that he seems to have picked up from watching Floyd Mayweather Jr’s fights. He’s good at picking off shots, and making it difficult for his opponents to land their shots. However, Caparello does like to stop from time to time in the corners to throw shots and duck punches. If this pattern holds for his fight against Kovalev on Saturday, it could be bad for Caparello. He won’t last long with that kind of fighting style against a puncher like Kovalev.

The best thing Caparello can do is to try and take Kovalev to the deeper waters to see if he can wear him down. Kovalev looked tired in his last fight against Cedric Agnew last March.

By the 6th, Kovalev appeared tired and was sweating profusely. However, he still had much of his power still there, and he was able to batter a badly beaten Agnew into a 7th round stoppage. Caparello might be able to wear Kovalev down by making him chase him around the ring for 12 rounds, but he can’t afford to stop an trade with him because it’ll end badly for him if he tries this tactic.

“Sergey Kovalev is the biggest puncher in boxing. We are working on different game plans to deal with Sergey’s power,” Caparello said. “I won’t know how hard he punches until I get in the ring with him.”

The tactics that Caparello will use will be the ones that he’s used throughout his 5-year pro career. He’ll move a lot and look to make Kovalev miss with his shots the way that Daniel Geale had WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin missing with his punches last Saturday night.

Caparello looked bad in his last fight against Elvir Muriqi in winning a listless 10 round decision in January. He looked sloppy in that fight, and failed to impress.

Caparello’s other notable wins have come against Allan Green and Daniel MacKinnon. Those are guys aren’t major players in the 175 pound division, and the experience that Caparello got against him likely won’t do much for him against a quality fighter like Kovalev.