Jackson: Shabranskyy might beat Kovalev

By Boxing News - 11/24/2017 - Comments

Image: Jackson: Shabranskyy might beat Kovalev

By Allan Fox: Trainer John David Jackson says underdog Vyacheslav Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) has a chance of beating Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) tonight if he can take the early punishment that he’ll be suffering at the hands of the ‘Krusher’ in their fight at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Jackson feels that if Shabranskyy can get to the later rounds of the fight, he’ll have a good chance of stopping Kovalev.

Jackson was let go recently by Kovalev following his second defeat at the hands of Andre Ward last June. Kovalev replaced Jackson with Abror Tursunpulatov, a trainer from Eastern Europe. Jackson thinks the only reason why Kovalev picked out Tursunpulatov as his new trainer is because he’s cheap and he doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on one of the good trainers. Further, Jackson says Kovalev isn’t going to listen to Tursunpulatov anyway, because he likes to do things himself.

“He says American trainers can’t teach him anything. That’s because you don’t listen,” said Jackson to Fighthype. “Shabranskyy, I don’t think is on his level. I know the power’s not there. If he’s got a good chin, and he can withstand what Sergey is going to put on him, Shabranskyy might be able to get to him,” said Jackson.

Shabranskyy has respectable power. He’s not as powerful as Kovalev, Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol, but he’s a better puncher than Andre Ward. We saw what Ward just did to Kovalev in stopping him in the 8th round. Shabranskyy doesn’t need to have the monstrous power of Bivol, Beterbiev or Adonis Stevenson for him to knockout Kovalev. He just needs to land his shots to the body when Kovalev starts to wear down, which should be round the 5th if the fight is Shabranskyy lasts that long.

Shabranskyy has a good chin, but he’s still not going to last long if he’s unbeaten to limit some of the big shots that Kovalev is hitting him with. Shabranskyy isn’t known for having great defensive skills, as we saw in his loss to Sullivan Barrera last December. Shabranskyy can’t let Kovalev touch him the way that Barrera was, because he won’t make it to the 7th round like he did against him. Anything is possible though. Kovalev might not have the work rate knockout Shabranskyy before he starts gassing out. A tired out Kovalev will be at the mercy of Shabranskyy.

“He didn’t even earn that title shot,” said Jackson about Kovalev. “The guy gets a title shot right away, undeserving,” said Jackson.

Jackson brings up a good point in saying that the 34-year-old Kovalev didn’t earn his title shot for the vacant WBO light heavyweight title. It’s obvious that Kovalev in no way shape or form deserves to be fighting for a world title tonight. Kovalev has lost his last 2 fights to Ward. The World Boxing Organization’s decision to keep Kovalev at No.2, and then allow him to fight for their vacant WBO 175 b. title is a little hard to understand.

If this was the NFL, then it would be a team that had lost 2 games in a row being allowed to go to the Super Bowl. The sanctioning bodies are supposed to have high standards for who they allow to fight for their world titles. With the WBO, they’re letting a struggling fighter in Kovalev fight for their vacant 175 lb., and they’re allowing him to do it against the #10 ranked Shabranskyy instead of someone ranked higher.

”Listen, number one, he’s hard-headed,” said Jackson about Kovalev. ”3 credible, recognizable trainers and not one of them can get along with you. That means something’s wrong with the fighter, not the trainer. He wants to run his own camp. He won the title and became egotistical, got a big head, and that happens unfortunately. I don’t wish him any harm, but I don’t wish well on him,” said Jackson.

Jackson says Kovalev didn’t want to listen to him after he became a world champion. When he first started training Kovalev, he was listening well and following his instructions. Things completely changed after Kovalev won a world title, says Jackson. Then all of a sudden, Kovalev no longer wanted to work hard, and he just wanted to do whatever he wanted to do.

It’s going to be hard for Kovalev to have any real lasting power as the WBO champion if he can’t work hard and improve his stamina. The chances are good that Kovalev will beat Shabranskyy tonight to become the WBO light heavyweight champion, but that’s only because he’s facing a guy that is out of his league in Shabranskyy. But keeping the belt is going to be hard.

It’s not just going to be difficult for Kovalev to hold onto his title due to the unification fights that he could be looking to fight. He would have problems holding onto the WBO title against #1 WBO Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who will be coming for him soon. All the WBO needs to do to is order Kovalev to have to fight Gvozdyk, and that’ll be immediate problems for him unless he can get a unification fight against Bivol, Beterbiev or Stevenson.