By Jaime Ortega: The fight of the year was controversial, but not necessarily robbery. I witness the fight live on ringside at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Andre Ward’s first 4 rounds were not stellar and cost him an early knockdown – he was to not get knocked out. After the six round, Ward started to pick up the pace and landed shots on Sergey Kovalev’s body; many of the shots that landed on Kovalev’s body hit the elbow and not the target.
Ward shifted to target the body instead of the head because he had a hard time stopping Kovalev’s counter left. As I had mentioned on my previous article, Kovalev’s reach is enough to keep Ward at distance. Every time Ward launched a quick jab to catch the Russian’s face, Kovalev extended his left arm to counter him back – therefore, Ward ran into Kovalev’s left often. Ward figured out that Kovalev’s left was a problem and changed his strategy later on the rounds.
Kovalev started to gas-out by the 9th round and looked less stable and mobile – that is when Ward started to impose his game —not without clinching. The excessive clinches Ward used helped to systematically breakdown the Russian’s aggression and slow his pace.
The fight ended strangely in favor of Ward. The unanimous result was a bad call. If a clear winner was declared yesterday —the fight favored Kovalev by a minimum margin— but I scored a draw because Ward ended strong and somehow survived the first rounds.
Ward doesn’t need to rematch Kovalev, he should focus instead on defeating Adonis Stevenson and take the WBC title. If he beats Stevenson now, he can unify all belts at 175lbs, vacate and go back down to 168lbs. Stevenson won’t be an easy fight for the American —and judging the fight with Kovalev—Ward is likely to get stung and hurt regardless of the outcome. Unlike two years ago, Ward no longer slips punches well and he is susceptible to get hit.
To be frank, it doesn’t matter who won yesterday. As I mentioned on my earlier posts, Artur Beterbiev is going to destroy Adonis Stevenson, Andre Ward, Sergey Kovalev, Vyacheslav Shabransky, and the new prospect Oleksandr Gvozdyk —- who soundly beat Isaac Chilemba despite his injury. Beterbiev is the real boogie man of the light heavyweight division —- he is the equivalent of Errol Spence Jr., in the welterweight division — but he is more dominant and powerful.
Beterbiev has a solid amateur record and as a professional he has knocked out everyone on his path via demolition. No one has lasted more than seven rounds with the Russian prodigy. His body type is stocky, powerful on both hands and unstoppable when he fights on the inside. No one in the light heavy weight division can stop the Russian prospect – he also has a granite chin.
Beterbiev beat Kovalev on the amateurs and he will demolish him again. Kovalev has tried to sugarcoat his loss against his Russian counterpart; John David Jackson has also shown reluctance on facing the Russian bulldozer.
Beterviev will smoke Stevenson. Stevenson has very fast hand speed, but his defense is terribly suspect. The Russian will use his boxing ability to fight inside and break Stevenson’s guard – once Stevenson gets clipped, it is lights out.
Ward won’t be able to outbox the Russian rocky and won’t neutralize his power. Ward was the better boxer against Kovalev, but got countered often and his face showed signs of damage. With Beterbiev the style changes and Ward now faces a higher technical boxer with equal or more knockout power than Kovalev. Ward won’t last 7 rounds with the Russian. Ward needs to fight Adonis, beat him, and then vacate the belt and go back to 168lbs. Ward’s legacy won’t be the same if he faces Beterbiev; he will easily lose his undefeated streak.