By Allan Fox: Andre Ward (30-0, 15 Kos) says he’s not going to be taking any “mess” on Saturday night from IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) in their fight on HBO POPV from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ward will be attempting to win all three of Kovalev’s titles, as well as a potential #1 pound-for-pound status with Ring Magazine.
The two fighters met on Thursday for their final press conference to hype their fight on Saturday night. Ward was talking real tough, as if he’s got the punching power to win the fight rather than the other way around.
(Photo credit: Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/Roc Nation Sport)
“We’re not supposed to like each other. His side has been doing a lot of talking. That’s fine. We love it…but know one thing, I’m not taking no mess come Saturday night. I’m going to be there,” said Ward as quoted by Fight news.
Ward needs to forget about the liking stuff already. He can give Kovalev the silent treatment all the way up to the fight, and it’s not going to make a difference in the outcome of the fight. The winner of the fight won’t be determined on mind games. The winner will be determined on skills and punching power. Ward might as well be friendly going into the fight to show the boxing fans how to be a good sport, because he’s not going to get in Kovalev’s head enough to win the fight by being silent around him.
It doesn’t make any difference. Ward can freeze Kovalev out all he wants, but if he doesn’t have the ability to beat him on Saturday, then it won’t make any difference. Fighters that use the silent treatment and mind games lose all the time in boxing. You’ve got to have the talent and youth to win. If Ward doesn’t have those things going for him on Saturday, then he’ll lose. It’s as simple as that.
What’s unclear is what Ward means by he’s not “taking no mess.” Does that mean he’s not going to accept getting punched in the fight or does it mean he’s not going to accept being fouled by Kovalev? It’s hard to know. If Ward isn’t going to take being punched, then he’s going to need to get on his bike or work on his grappling techniques so he can stall out the fight, because he’s surely going to be getting punched.
This is a boxing match, not a wrestling match. If Ward doesn’t figure on getting punched, then he should have gone back to fighting the over-matched guys that he’s been fighting recently in 39-year-old Alexander Brand, Paul Smith and Sullivan Barrera. Those are the types that won’t hit Ward on Saturday, but Kovalev is.
If Ward can’t handle being punched, then he’s going to need to figure out a way of making the fight ugly by running or holding all night, because he doesn’t have the punching power to KO Kovalev. That’s not likely to happen. Ward has only knocked out half of the opponents he’s faced during his career, and that’s a clear sign that he lacks the punching power to get the job done, especially now that he’s moved up to light heavyweight Ward looks like he didn’t bring what little power that he had with him up in weight when he moved to 175. He’s going to need to come up with another plan if he wants to win the fight, because he’s not going to be able to count on getting a knockout in this fight.
“I’m here to prove that I’m better,” said Kovalev. “I hope that our fight will be very clean and honest and bring out the best of us. I’m very excited, a little nervous because I was never on this level. HBO PPV is the highest level in pro boxing…you will see a very great fight.”
Hopefully, the fight does stay clean, because if it ends up an ugly foul-fest, then it’s going to be on referee Robert Byrd to take charge and do something about it. The boxing world doesn’t want to see an MMA fight on Saturday. The fans will be paying to see an exciting fight of actual boxing, not wrestling and grappling around on the mat in an ugly affair.
Kovalev has the advantage in these two areas: 1. power and 2. Punch volume. Ward has better hand speed, and the superior defense. Ward used to be a mobile fighter five years ago, but age and inactivity appears to have taken that attribute away from him.
It’ll be interesting to see if Ward can find the fountain of youth on Saturday night to drink from it’s magical waters to make him the young and mobile fighter from 2011 that captured the Super Six tournament with a win over Carl Froch. Even in that fight, Ward didn’t use a lot of movement. If you saw that fight, you’ll remember that Ward was mostly jabbing and wrestling Froch on the inside. It was an ugly fight to watch, because it didn’t contain a lot of boxing. It was a lot of ugly wrestling. The good news is that Ward has been fighting a lot better since coming back to the sport after a two year layoff last year. He’s not wrestling like he did before.
Former light heavyweight world title challenger Isaac Chilemba, who is fighting on the undercard against Oleksandr Gvodyk, sees the Kovalev-Ward fight as a 50-50 fight. Chilemba lost to Kovalev by a 12 round decision last July in Russia.
“This fight is 50-50 to me,” said Chilemba to Fighthype.com. “Andre Ward is a very smart fighter. Kovalev is known as a devastating puncher, but he also can think. It’s 50-50. For me, it’s hard to pick.
Some fans see Chilemba as another version of Ward. Kovalev did a good job of outworking Chilemba to win a one-sided 12 round decision. It was a good fight to get Kovalev prepared for the fight. For his part, Ward fought 39-year-old super middleweight Alexander Brand in his last September in his preparation for the Kovalev fight.
Brand is nothing like Kovalev in size, power, age or talent. It’s still hard to understand why Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports picked Brand out as Ward’s final fight before the Kovalev fight. Hopefully, Ward doesn’t wind up losing the fight to Kovalev for want of preparation. If that’s the case, then at least he’ll have a good excuse.
