By Allan Fox: IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1. 26 KOs) easily defeated challenger Isaac Chilemba (24-4-2, 10 KOs) in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on Monday night at the DIVS Arena in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Kovalev, 33, knocked Chilemba down hard in round seven. The judges scored the fight 117-110, 116-111 and 118-109. Kovalev looked slow as far as his hand speed goes. He fought in a slow manner as well, and he was there to be hit by Chiemba all night by his jabs.
Chilemba was dropped with a jab followed by a hard right hand to the jaw that caused him to stagger backwards against the ropes before falling down. Chilemba was badly hurt from the knockdown and barely beat the count. Chilemba looked out on his feet as the action resumed. However, he was able to ride out the rest of the round despite taking some big punches.
Chilemba was on the verge of being knocked out again in the 8th, as he was clobbered by Kovalev with two hard hooks to the head. Chilemba staggered back and took two more lefts before grabbing Kovalev in a clinch to keep him from hitting him again. After the referee separated the two fighters, Chilemba turned several more hard shots, but they didn’t land clean enough for him to drop Chilemba again.
Kovalev seemed to take his foot off the gas pedal after the 8th round, as he fought at a slow pace and didn’t seem like he was in a real need to try and finish Chilemba. It looked like Kovalev was just practicing against Chilemba more than anything.
Kovalev has a big fight coming up in four months from now against a pure boxer in Andre Ward, and it appeared that Kovalev was using Chilemba to get ready for that fight. I think Kovalev could have taken Chilemba out if he wanted to, but he didn’t really press the issue.
Kovalev went in the attack mode in the last minute of the 12th round, when he suddenly went after Chilemba and hit him with everything he had. Chilemba was hurt by several of Kovalev’s big shots, but he was able to stay on his feet to finish the round. Chilemba was bleeding from the nose as he round ended and he looked in sad shape. Chilemba was lucky that Kovalev hadn’t fought like that in the 11 previous rounds of the fight, because he would have likely been knocked out.
Chilemba, 29, gave Kovalev problems with his jabs. He was able to catch the Russian fighter repeatedly with his jabs all throughout the fight. Kovalev was cautious after a while to attack Chilemba because he kept getting hit with his hard jabs while he was coming forward.
Round four, five and six were very close due to Chilemba hitting Kovalev with his head-snapping jabs over and over again. Kovalev didn’t throw a lot of shots in those rounds, and this made it hard to give him the rounds. I think Kovalev still did enough to squeak out those rounds, but they were very close.
Kovalev seemed to shift into a higher gear in the 7th round, as he started to really come after Chilemba. Late in the round, Kovalev charged forward and hit Chilemba with a powerful jab followed by a right that hurt Chilemba, causing him to stagger backwards and fall to the canvas.
All in all, Kovalev fought well in dominating the defensive-minded Chilemba, Kovalev was fighting a guy that was mainly just jabbing and trying to make him miss all night long. Chilemba wasn’t leaving very many openings for Kovalev due to his defensive focus in that fight.
Kovalev is going to need to fight at a much higher level against Andre Ward if he wants to beat the American, because Kovalev would have lost a lot of rounds if it had been Ward inside the ring with him tonight instead of Chilemba. I don’t know if Kovalev would have beaten Ward if it had been him inside the ring with the way he fought tonight.
Ward would have been hitting Kovalev with jabs all night long and nailing him with pinpoint right hands and left hooks to the head. Kovalev would have needed to go all out and attack Ward in a furious way if he wanted to beat him.
Kovalev cannot afford to fight in a cautious manner against a fighter like Ward, because he thrives when his opponents fight at a slow pace. You would like to think that Kovalev will be smarter in the fight against Ward by fighting in all-out manner, but I’m not sure that he would. If Kovalev fights in the same way he fought tonight against Ward, then he loses and loses badly. That approach is a fail. Kovalev has to fight hard for a full three minutes of every round and forget about boxing. It’s got to be pure slugging. I would like to think that Kovalev can fight harder against a fighter like Ward, but I’m not sure if he can. Half of Kovalev’s problems tonight against Chilemba were the mental variety. He fought like he was thinking too much instead of fighting on instinct in a seek and destroy pattern. If it was a matter of Kovalev pacing himself for fear that he would gas out if he fought hard against Chilemba, then I think he’s going to hav ea lot of problems when he gets inside the ring with the 31-year-old Ward, because he won’t be cutting any corners. Ward is a 2004 Olympic gold medalist, and he doesn;’t believe in taking it easy. Ward does his training and gets in top shape, so he doesn’t need to worry about pacing himself like we saw with Kovalev tonight.
After watching Kovalev’s performance against Chilemba tonight, I have to downgrade his ratings in the light heavyweight division. I no longer have Kovalev as No.1 at 175, because I think he isn’s as good as several other top fighters in the division.
Here are my new ratings for the light heavyweight division:
1. Adonis Stevenson
2. Andre Ward
3. Oleksandr Gvozdyk
4. Artur Beterbiev
5. Sergey Kovalev
There’s nothing wrong with being No.5. It shows that Kovalev has room for improvement because I don’t think he rates a top spot any longer. The division has improved and Kovalev is starting to look like he’s no longer the top dog.