By Jim Dower: Sergey Kovalev doesn’t appear to be letting up on Andre “SOG” Ward now that the two of them are signed for a rematch on HBO pay-per-view June 17 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kovalev took to social media on Friday to skewer Ward, letting him know that his fans are on his side now in going into the rematch.
Kovalev wants to beat Ward so badly that he’ll never fight again after their rematch. Calling Ward, “Sons of Judges,” in a reference to the controversial nature of his decision, Kovalev says Ward showed a photo of Ward on his hands and knees in front of him after he’d knocked him down in the 2nd round of their November 19 fight.
The anger that Kovalev has with Ward stems from his 12 round decision win over him last year in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kovalev didn’t agree with the decision that judges handed down. He thought he won the fight by an 8 rounds to 4 score or 9 rounds to 3.
AndreSOK "Son of Kovalev". Pray to me @andreward pic.twitter.com/BAbZ2HzLnD
— Sergey Kovalev (@KrusherKovalev) April 7, 2017
“Fans of Andre “Son of Judges’ Ward on my side😂👍🏼” said Kovalev.
Ward is going to need to be ready for a much different Kovalev on June 17, because it looks like “The Krusher” wants to knock him out in the worst way. Ward cannot go back to the same plan that he used in their first fight because Kovalev will be ready for that style. The style I’m talking about is Ward’s mauling style involving a lot holding, wrestling and short punches on the inside. Ward used that style to win a lot of close rounds in which the punch stats showed that Kovalev was landing the same amount of blows.
The difference appeared to be that Kovalev was landing the harder punches, but the judges were still giving Ward the rounds. Kovalev landed 126 of 474 punches in the Ward fight on November 19. Ward landed 116 of 337 punches. Kovalev had the advantage in total punches landed. He also had the advantage in power punches. He connected on 78 of 232 compared to Ward’s 61 of 169.
Kovalev has really personalized the Ward fight to the extent where he seemingly wants to tear the Oakland native apart. Ward seems to be more disconnected emotionally in comparison. Ward is approaching the fight like it’s a job. Kovalev is coming from a different place. He’s a man on a mission. That could be bad for Ward, because it means he’s going to be fighting a much better prepared fighter than the last time they fought. Kovalev knows what to expect Ward in terms of holding and mauling on the inside.
With the work that Kovalev does in training camp, he’s likely going to be much more difficult to handle on the inside for Ward than last time. It means Ward is going to be getting hit with a lot of short shots from Kovalev if he chooses to make it another inside war. I don’t know if you can call the previous fight an inside war, because there were so few meaningful punches thrown by either guy.
Ward’s game plan for the Kovalev rematch will likely involve these strategies:
– Moving
– Jabbing
– Throwing pot shots – Ward won’t be able to throw combinations because that’s how he got knocked down by Kovalev. Ward doesn’t have the chin to take Kovalev’s power shots if he gets caught while throwing combinations. That’s why he’s not going to try that strategy.
– Holding – This might be a fallback plan for Ward if he can’t find success with the other strategies
Demetrius Andrade with no luck in getting Erislandy Lara fight
After winning the WBA World junior middleweight title last month in beating Jack Culcay (22-2, 11 KOs) by a 12 round split decision on March 11, unbeaten Demetrius Andrade (24-0, 16 KOs) was counting on getting a fight against WBA Super World 154lb champion Erislandy Lara. Unfortunately, that fight doesn’t look like it’s going to be happening, according to Andrade’s promoter Artie Pellulo. He says Lara is looking to fight IBF champion Jarrett Hurd instead in a unification fight. Pullulo sees that as an easier fight for Lara, and it may very well be.
“We were under the impression that we were going to get Lara after the fight,” Pelullo said to RingTV.com. “Now Lara is back-pedaling and he doesn’t want the fight. So, we’re in a position now that we’re looking for a fight for Demetrius Andrade,” said Pellulo.
It’s not surprising that Lara isn’t jumping up and down to try and fight the 6’1” Andrade, because it’s been 3 years since he took on a good opponent in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in July 2014. Lara’s opposition since that time has been against largely beatable fighters like Yuri Foreman, Jan Zaveck, Ishe Smith and Vanes Martirosyan. Those were all pretty much mismatches with the exception of Martirosyan.
Andrade will need to look at making a regular defense of his new WBA 154 lb. title. Andrade can try and fight Erickson Lubin, Liam Williams, Michel Soro or Terrell Gausha. Those would be decent level fights. They wouldn’t attract as much attention as a fight against Lara, but they would still be good title defenses for Andrade if he were to take those fights. Andrade should take the most difficult opposition he can in order to build his name. If he wants to make himself a star, he’s got to fight better opposition than what we’ve seen from him.
“I was told that Lara wanted to go in a direction of fighting Hurd for the unified title but in my opinion I think it’s an easier fight for Lara and that’s why he wants it,” said Pullulo.
There’s a possibility that Andrade could take part in a tournament. Promoters Wilfied Sauerland and Richard Schaefer are putting together a tourney. Andrade is a possibility to take part in that. The most important thing is for Andrade to get back into the ring so he can continue fighting. He lost a year of his career after winning the WBO junior middleweight title. The World Boxing Organization wound up stripping Andrade of his title for failing to defend the belt for a year. The last thing Andrade needs is to find himself on the shelf for another year without being able to defend his WBA title.
In the last 2 years, Andrade has nice wins over Culcay, Willie Nelson and Dario Fabian Pucheta. Andrade probably should have fought twice as much as he did because he was out of action much of the time without fighting anyone. He can’t continue to do that if he wants to get the most of his career. When you see guys like Saul Canelo Alvarez fighting 3 times a year and Gennady Golovkin fighting 4 times a year, it gives you some perspective of the waste of Andrade’s potential.
Andrade has fought only 4 times in the last 3 years, period. He should have fought much more than that. It’s fair to say that neither Andrade nor Lara is doing much with their careers as far as getting big fights lately. That’s bad news for those guys because they should be taking chances by fighting the best possible opposition instead of the guys they’ve been feasting on.