By Allan Fox: WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (24-0-1, 22 KOs) successfully made weight on Friday for his title defense against #10 WBO Blake Caparello (19-0-1, 6 KOs) for their fight on Saturday night at the Revel Resort, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
Kovalev and Caparello both weighed in at 174 pounds. The 6’0” Kovalev looked taller than Caparello, even though the Australian fighter is listed at 6’1 ½” in height.
Kovalev wasn’t too impressed in watching Caparello fight on video, as he sees him as someone that does a lot running and he doesn’t want to have to chase him around the ring on Saturday night. Caparello says he’s going to box Kovalev for the entire fight because he knows he can’t stand in front of him.
“He’s running. He’s boxing. He’s not fighting,” Kovalev said about Caparello’s fighting style.
Kovalev’s promoter could have found someone a little more willing to engage than Caparello, but there’s not too many fighters with unbeaten records in the 175 pound division right now in the top 15, and it had to have been appealing for HBO to have a guy with a perfect record facing Kovalev.
The problem that Caparello has is he’s not fought any good opposition as of yet, and he’s got a fighting style that is similar to Floyd Mayweather Jr’s, but he’s slower and not nearly as skilled or entertaining. Caparello likes to move around the ring and throw pot shots. His lack of power is going to be a problem for him in this fight if he gets caught against the ropes by Kovalev.
Kovalev said “I was mad after that last fight [against Cedric Agnew]. He was easy, but he didn’t fight. Right now I want to see myself and feel the result of my [preparation].”
The Kovalev-Caparello fight will be shown as part of HBO’s Boxing After Dark split-site telecast on Saturday starting at 9:45 p.m. ET/PT.
It’s possible that Kovalev could be facing IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins later this year. Kovalev would like that fight if it can get made. But he just needs to make sure he gets past Caparello on Saturday night so that his promoter can start working on putting the bout together.
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