By Allan Fox: It’s been many years since Andre “SOG” Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) has faced a good opponent, but on Saturday night he’s going to be asking a great deal of his rusty body when he faces IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) on HBO PPV from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
For Ward, this will be only his second fight against a real light heavyweight. Despite moving up to the 175lb division last year, Ward has been mostly fighting super middleweights for some reason. Only Ward and his promoters know why they’ve taken that path to this fight.
Perhaps those were the only guys Ward’s promoters could get for him? Whatever the case, Ward’s preparation for the Kovalev fight has been less than ideal. Ward will have to make the best of things when he gets inside the ring with Kovalev on Saturday night.
For his part, Kovalev is totally prepared for Ward’s fighting style after beating the Ward-esque Isaac Chilemba by a 12 round unanimous decision last July in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Out of all the fighters in the 175lb division, Chilemba is arguably the most like Ward that you could find. Fortunately for Kovalev, his promoters at Main Events also promote Chilemba. If not, then it might have been a tough fight to make.
Ward said this recently to skysports.com about his fight against Kovalev:
“I want to take Kovalev places he’s never been before, I don’t like bullies, I don’t advocate bullying and I’ve never been bullied, and that’s not going to change in this fight. They are going to realize that this fight is not what they thought it would be. He’s going to be taken to places he’s never been before.”
If Ward is going to take Kovalev to places he’s never been before, then he’s going to fight a lot harder than he’s shown in his three fights since making his comeback last year. In looking at that version of Ward, he’s looked older, slower, less capable of throwing a lot of punches, and no longer a mobile fighter.
Ward now spends a lot of time with his back against the ropes rather than moving around the ring like he once did. It’s common knowledge that older fighters tend to perch themselves against the ropes to fight it out from that vantage point, because they don’t have the legs to move around like they once did. Ward is only 32, but sometimes that age can be the equivalent of a 40-year-old fighter.
How a fighter ages depends on a lot of things. Sometimes fighters don’t age well. In looking at Ward’s last three fights, he looks like someone who hasn’t aged well in terms of his physical ability rather than how he looks. Ward does not seem to be able to do what he used to do five years ago. He’s not quick on his feet like he was in the past, and his hand speed appears to have slowed some. But one thing that is a dead giveaway for Ward aging is how he prefers to fight with his back against the ropes nowadays.
Ward never did that in the past. This is new, and it’s hard not to suspect that it’s due to him aging.
“My goal is to get victory and not to think about what Andre Ward is doing. I’m just working and focusing on my body and on my shape,” said Kovalev via skysports.com.
Kovalev is ignoring the things that Ward has been doing. He was briefly bothered by how Ward chose to ignore him at their recent press conference. Kovalev said he felt it would have been no big deal for Ward to say ‘Hi’ to him, but when that failed to happen, he forgot about it. It created news in the media, but Kovalev says he paid no attention to it afterwards except when he would be asked about it by people. Kovlev isn’t going to be shaken up mentally by Ward not acknowledging his existence.
That kind of thing isn’t going to change the outcome of this Saturday’s fight on HBO pay-per-view. Whether Ward is trying to play mental games to intimidate Kovalev or not is unknown. If this is what Ward is trying to do, then he’s going to need to do more than that if he wants to get the win. You’ve got to be able to back it up at this level.
You can’t get a victory by ignoring someone when you meet them. Intimidation works at the lower levels, but not against guys that have actual talent. Hopefully, Ward isn’t depending on intimidation to try and get a win on Saturday, because he’s going to come up short if that’s all he’s got. Kovalev is going to be looking to take his head off on Saturday no matter what he does. It’s Ward’s job to try and come up with a concrete plan to win the fight. I don’t know if that’s going to be possible if all he can do is fight with his back against the ropes. That’s a recipe for losing the fight.
Ward used to have such great boxing skills. It’s hard to know what happened to them. He has not shown those same skills in his last three fights. The main thing that we’ve seen from Ward in his last three fights has been him trying to keep from getting hit. He’s been totally defensive. He’s put on a lot of size, and he uses his big uppercut body to block shots. But he’s not throwing punches, and he’s not fast any longer like he used to. Ward isn’t holding and wrestling like used to as well. That’s good for the fans, because it was sometimes boring to watch Ward grapple with his opponents in the past. It’s unclear why Ward stopped wrestling. It could be that his opponents haven’t been talented enough for Ward to feel it’s necessary for him to have to grab them and hold. He’s been matched carefully in his comeback.
Kovalev does really well when his opponents are fighting against the ropes.
If Ward is going to perch himself against the ropes on Saturday night, he could wind up getting bludgeoned by Kovalev. Ward has got to get off the ropes and use the ring if he doesn’t want to wind up getting knocked out in this fight.
Kovalev had problems with these tactics in his last fight against Chilemba last July:
1. Movement – I don’t think Ward can move around even if he wants to. He doesn’t have the youth it appears to move.
2. Jabbing – This is one area that Ward can probably mimic Chilemba to use against Kovalev. Ward does still seem capable of throwing jabs. Whether that will keep Kovalev off of him is the big question.
3. Getting hit while on the way in – Ward is still good at landing shots on his opponents when they’re attacking him. Unfortunately, Ward only throws one punch, and isn’t as good at following up with additional shots when this opponents get in close. Even if Ward lands a shot on Kovalev when he’s attacking, he may have problems with Kovalev responding by throwing combinations in close.
4. Fast pot shot right hands This is something that Ward can do from the outside. However, Kovalev will look to retaliate by attacking with combination punching. Unless Ward can match him in this area, he may end up taking a beating and getting stopped.
If Ward is to beat Kovalev on Saturday, he’s going to need to implement the best things that Chilemba did in his fight against the Russian fighter into his own game. I don’t know if that’s possible though. Chilemba is a younger fighter at 29 than Ward, and he’s not become a part time fighter in the last five years. Ward has been a part time fighter since 2011. Chilemba has stayed active throughout his career, and he’s not taken long periods of time off from boxing. Ward probably can’t move even if he wants to.
