By Allan Fox: Trainer Virgil Hunter is sending a warning out to IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) that his fighter Andre “SOG” Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) has got the punching power to knockout anyone in the 175lb division and he means ANYONE. Ward will be looking to rip Kovalev’s three light heavyweight titles from him this Saturday night on November 19 on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
If Ward can beat Kovalev, he’ll likely see himself crowned as the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in boxing today. The win might not do much as far as creating a huge match against a star like Gennady “GGG” Golovkin though, because he’s not showing interest in moving up to 175 to fight the guys in that division.
Ward, 32, could get a fight against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis “Super Man” Stevenson though, because he’s talking about wanting to fight the winner of the Kovalev vs. Ward fight. Whether Stevenson is serious or not remains to be seen.
Hunter said this to Fighthype.com about Ward’s punching power for the Kovalev fight on Saturday:
“What I can is that what they might think they’re going to see, they’re not going to see, and that’s a fact,” said Hunter. ”Trust me; Andre has got the power to knock out any light heavyweight. They cannot afford to make mistakes in this fight,” said Hunter.
Ward would need to land the perfect shot to get Kovalev out of there on Saturday night, because he’s not a fragile-chinned fighter. Kovalev can take a pretty good shot. He did have problems with the punching power of journeyman Darnell Boone in their first fight in 2010.
Kovalev was hit a lot by Boone’s heavy punches, and he barely won the match by an eight round split decision. In the rematch in 2012, Kovalev was much better in stopping Boone in the 2nd round. Boone is a much different type of puncher than Ward. There’s no comparison. Boone punches much harder, and he throws everything with power. Ward is more of a medium level puncher, who doesn’t try and load up in the same way that Boone does.
“As they say that we can’t, they can’t either,” said Hunter in talking about Ward making mistakes for the Kovalev fight. “So it’s who is going to keep it down to a minimum, the so-called mistakes. I think how Sergey’s people visualize it, it’s simply not going to be that way.”
Kovalev has more room to make mistakes that Ward does, because he’s not facing a big puncher in this fight. Hunter can try and make it seem like Kovalev has a lot to fear from Ward in the power department, but that’s simply not the case. Ward is not a big puncher, and he’s not going to be able to scare Kovalev with his power.
Ward is going to need to win this fight with his boxing ability and defensive skills rather than his power. If he gets caught up in a war with Kovalev on Saturday night, then it could end badly for him with Kovalev getting a knockout. Ward hasn’t stopped a top grade fighter in four years since his stoppage win over Chad Dawson in 2012.
Even that TKO should have asterisk next to it, because Dawson drained down from 175 to fight Ward at 168 rather than fighting him at a catch-weight. Dawson made the mistake of not bargaining tough to get the fight on an even playing field. Dawson put himself at a disadvantage in that fight despite the fact that he was a world champion at 175 and seen as the best fighter in the division by many boxing fans at the time.
Ward’s last knockout came against Paul Smith last year in stopping him in the 9th. While Smith has fought for world titles on a couple of occasions in his career against former WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, he’s perceived as a flawed fighter in the minds of many fans. Ward’s KO of Smith didn’t prove that he’s anymore of a puncher at light heavyweight than he was when he was fighting at super middleweight.
If Hunter is trying to bluff in an attempt to intimidate Kovalev by making him think he has something to fear from Ward in terms of his power, I’m not sure that it’s going to work. Kovalev is not going to be hesitant to attack Ward with everything he’s got on Saturday night, because his entire game is centered on hi going after his opponents in trying to get knockouts.
Hunter isn’t going to be able to scare Kovalev off from being what he always is inside the ring by making him think that Ward is going to throw power shots back at him. If anything, it might encourage Kovalev more, because he wants Ward to go to war with him on Saturday. This would be great news for Kovalev if Ward does want to come out and slug with him, because that’s the type of fighting that he likes. It’s not the type of fighting style that Ward is suited to though. He prefers to box his opponents. In the fights where he’s tried to trade, he’s had problems.
Ward got caught in a war with Darnell Boone in their fight a decade ago, and he got dropped in the 4th round in that fight and almost knocked out. Likewise, Ward traded power shots with Sakio Bika in their fight four years ago, and that fight turned out to be a really difficult one for Ward. He needed to change tactics in the second half of that fight because he was taking so much punishment. Let’s face it; the only way that Ward is going to beat Kovalev on Saturday night is if he boxes him from the outside. If he tries to slug with him, it’s going to end in disaster.
Hunter isn’t going to throw Kovalev off his game by talking about Ward’s punching power. Kovalev and his trainer John David Jackson have a pretty good idea what Ward is going to do in the fight. He’s only got a couple of options. He can try and smother Kovalev on the inside by holding, wrestling and landing shots in close or he can fight on the outside.
Ward doesn’t have the wheels to move any longer like he used to earlier in his career, so he’s going to need to be stationary to keep from gassing out. That’s not good for Ward, because Kovalev is going to be on top of him all night long looking to drop bombs on him with both hands.