By Jim Dower: Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev is going into this Saturday’s fight against Vyacheslav Shabranskyy under a dark cloud. Kovalev has lost his last 2 fights, and looked horrible in his fight before that as well.
Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) is now at a point where one more loss for him will for all intents and purposes put his career on skid row. HBO Boxing will be televising the Kovalev- Shabranskyy. They haven’t given up on Kovalev despite his recent string of bad luck inside the ring.
If Kovalev gets knocked out by Shabranskyy on Saturday, it might be time for the Russian star to think about retiring. Losing to Andre Ward is one thing. Losing to the likes of Shabranskyy would be a clear sign that it’s time to hang up the gloves.
The World Boxing Organization has given the 34-year-old Kovalev a BIG break by keeping him ranked high with their organization at No.2, and letting him fight for their vacant WBO 175 lb. title against the No.10 rated Shabranskyy (19-1, 16 KOs) instead of the higher rated #1 WBO Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Once fighters become well-known in boxing, they get breaks that other fighters don’t get obviously.
Just based off how poor Kovalev looked in losing to Andre Ward in his last 2 fights, he should probably be ranked near the bottom of the WBO’s top 15 rather than at No.2. Never the less, the WBO had their reasons for giving Kovalev an arguably undeserved ranking. It doesn’t matter. Even if Kovalev beats Shabranskyy, he’s going to need to prove himself soon against Gvozdyk or one of the other champions at 175 like Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol. Those fighters have all expressed interest in wanting to fight Kovalev.
“I felt in my last boxing fight that I was ready 100 per cent, but right now I understand that I didn’t,” said Kovalev to skysports.com. ”Right now we’ll see November 25 what the difference will bring to Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev.”
Shabranskyy, 30, is likely going to work Kovalev over with body shots, and it’s quite possible we could see the ‘Krusher’ wind up getting taken out again. Kovalev has shown zero ability to take body shots well. Shabranskyy is clearly a bigger puncher than Andre Ward. However, Shabranskyy has always been a head hunter, so it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to throw enough body shots to give Kovalev problems. For a lot of heat hunters like Shabranskyy, they go into fights thinking they’re going to stick to a game plan and throw to the body, but once they get out there, they fall back into their old habits of only throwing to the head. The reason is simple. It’s a lot easier to throw punches upstairs than it is to throw to the body. When a fighter throws body shots, they take risks of getting countered, and that’s why a lot of guys don’t bother. It’s simply easier to throw punches to the head.
The way that Kovalev is talking is the way that a lot of fighters talk when they their skills declining, and they no longer are able to win the big fights. I don’t know if there’s anything that Kovalev can really change in his game that will fix his problems. His stamina is poor, and it probably always has been poor. What may have covered up Kovalev’s stamina issues was him getting so many quick KOs. Ward exposed Kovalev by forcing him to fight beyond the 5th round by tying him up, wrestling him, and not letting him tee off in the early rounds. Kovalev is at his best in the first 4 rounds. He’s dangerous at that point in the fight, but he goes downhill after that, especially when he’s forced to fight hard.
”I want to prove for myself who I am really,” said Kovalev.
It might be too late for Kovalev to change things. His problems seem more related to aging and his inherent stamina problems. Not being able to take a body shot obviously compounds Kovalev’s issues. Ward created the blueprint in how to beat Kovalev, and you can expect Shabranskyy and all fighters that follow him to use the blueprint in hopes that it’ll work for them as well. Hopefully if Kovalev gets beaten again, he might think about retiring. If he can’t even beat Shabranksyy, then what does that suggest about Kovalev’s future? The WBO is throwing Kovalev a bone by letting him fight for their title against Shabranksyy, who was recently knocked out by Sullivan Barrera. If the WBO had played hardball with Kovalev, they might have made him fight someone really tough like Gvozdyk, and that would be a nightmare for him.