(Photo Credit: Rich Graessle/Main Events) By Chris Williams: WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson had the opportunity to see WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev’s 7th round knockout win tonight against Cedric Agnew (26-1, 13 KO’s), and Stevenson wasn’t impressed at all with what he saw from Kovalev. Stevenson’s opinion of Kovalev’s performance was that he looked really slow in struggling to defeat an easy opponent.
Kovalev suffered cuts over both eyes in the fight, and he was hit more than he should have been if he was the real deal. It’s hard to imagine Stevenson getting hit as many times as Kovalev did.
After the fight, Kovalev had to be taken to the hospital due to the bad cuts he suffered over both eyes in the fight. Agnew had to be taken to the hospital as well for a possible broken nose and ribs.
Stevenson said this on his twitter: “Kovalev, you can’t fight for sh**! Tell mama Duva to call Al Haymon and Yvon Michel so I can have an easy payday. I feel and I am the King of the light heavyweight division. He can’t fight for sh**!! Slow with no defence! When Kovalev fights me, he will stay at the hospital and mama Duva will come see him! Kovalev, tell your mama Kathy Duva to stop crying and to call Yvon Michel and Al Haymon to make the fight happen! BUM. Krusher Kovalev, you just a real slow BUM with no defence. Easy work!”
Stevenson is right. Kovalev is just so incredibly slow with his hand speed. He reminds me a lot of Alfredo Angulo, but with bigger size and better power. Stevenson would be much too fast for Kovalev if a fight between them took place. If a a guy like Agnew was able to hit Kovalev cleanly all night long and have him fighting tentatively, Stevenson would have done a number on him.
Kovalev is actually lucky that Stevenson is on Showtime now, because he would have knocked Kovalev out if he were in the ring with him tonight instead of Agnew.
This fight was way too hard for Kovalev tonight. If he had to struggle to beat this guy, then I don’t for a second think Kovalev could hang with the much faster and stronger Stevenson. Not only do I think Stevenson beats Kovalev, but I also think Jean Pascal would beat him as well. He’d be much too quick for him and would end up dominating him. Bernard Hopkins would beat him as well. That fight will never happen because by the tume Kovalev’s contract with HBO expires, Hopkins will have long retired. Hopkins, like Stevenson, fights on Showtime and can’t fight Kovalev.
Unfortunately, putting a fight together between Stevenson and Kovalev is not as easy as Stevenson thinks it is. Now that Stevenson has signed with HBO, it’s not a simple case of having Kovalev contract his promoter Yvon Michell or his manager Al Haymon. A fight between them cannot happen due to them being on different cable networks. HBO won’t likely give Kovalev permission to have him fight on Showtime, and vice a versa. It doesn’t work that way. Once you’re signed to a different network, you fight guys on that network, and you don’t have your fights shown on another network.