By Allan Fox: Light heavyweight champion Andre “SOG” Ward met with Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev earlier today in their kickoff press conference in New York for their June 17th fight, called “The Rematch on HBO pay-per-view at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kovalev looked kind of heavy today like he hadn’t fully started to train yet. Kovalev looked like he was easily in the 200s.
(Photo Credit: Roc Nation Sports/Khristopher Sandifer)
His face was really swelled up compared to how he’d looked the last time he fought Ward. The good news is that Kovalev has a full 2 months to drop the weight to get down to 175 for “The Rematch” Las Vegas.
Kovalev didn’t have much to say when it was turn at the podium to give his thoughts about the Ward rematch. One thing that Kovalev did stress is he hopes Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) shows up for the fight and doesn’t come up with an injury excuse. Ward doesn’t have a history of bowing out of a lot of his fights due to injury excuses, so hopefully we don’t see something new come up with him.
The two fighters fought each other last November on the 19th with Ward winning a questionable 12 round unanimous decision in front of a pro-Ward crowd at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Ward was knocked down in the 2nd round by a hard right hand by Kovalev. After Ward got back to his feet, he changed gears and went into what was clearly his Plan-B strategy, which involved him holding and wrestling Kovalev for the next 10 rounds. Kovalev landed the better shots in each round, and both guys landed basically the same amount of shots in the last 10 rounds, but the judges still gave Ward most of the rounds.
Like I said, it was very controversial because Kovalev hitting Ward with the better punches with a lot more power.
“What they have to understand, there’s nothing scary about this man,” said Ward about Kovalev. “You realize we just fought 12 rounds four months ago. Everybody wants to highlight the knockdown. That’s probably one of the most beautiful moments of my career. Did you guys see the other 10 rounds? Nobody is talking about that. But that’s what makes us who we are. We got another gear to kick into when we hit the canvas, and you guys saw that in the biggest moment of my career. We earned the position we have. The fight was academic,” said Ward.
Everyone has their own interpretation of what transpired in the Kovalevl-Ward I fight last November. Ward obviously has own vision of how he saw the fight through his own eyes. I think the spin that Ward is giving the fight is one that comes from an ideal interpretation in his mind. In a perfect world, Ward would have dominated Kovalev after getting back to his feet, hitting him at will, and making him miss with all of his power shots. The unfortunate reality for Ward is the fight was nothing like the way he describes it. After Ward got back to his feet after being knocked down, he largely wrestled and held onto Kovalev for the last two-thirds of the fight to stall out the action. Ward was not landing anything with power on it because he was throwing his shots from the inside with no leverage because he often had one arm hooked around the waist of Kovalev. You can punch when you’re holding onto your opponent.
Ward makes it sound like it’s a badge of honor that he was knocked down by Kovalev. He puts a spin on the event, as it were a good thing. It wasn’t a good thing for Ward, because the knockdown showed that Kovalev was the better fighter from the outside by leaps and bounds. If it was a good thing that Ward was knocked down by Kovalev, then he would have stayed on the outside and fought the remainder of the fight from that distance. The fact that Ward took the fight to the inside immediately after the knockdown suggests that he wasn’t confident of staying at a distance from Kovalev because the Russian fighter was better than him from that area.
”The reality is he has to see me on June 17th,” said Ward about Kovalev. “That’s the reality of the situation. We locked heads for 12 rounds. He knows. That’s the reality of the situation. He felt me. He knows, and that’s enough for me. On June 17th, it’s not going to be no different. We’re going to get started a little bit earlier. And whether you’re with me or whether you’re against me, tune in. It’s going to be a good show. Don’t miss this fight. June 17th, he got what he asked for,” said Ward about Kovalev.
Ward says he’s going to get started a little earlier this time than he did in their previous fight. That’s ominous because it gives me the impression that Ward will start with the wrestling/inside mauling tactics from the 1st round rather than the 3rd like he did in the first fight. That’s the only thing that Ward was doing in the last 10 rounds of the fight with Kovalev. Ward wasn’t fighting Kovalev. He was mauling with him by tying him up, making it difficult for him to throw his shots.
“I want to apologize to my fans for my performance in my last fight,” said Kovalev today at the New York kickoff press conference. “I don’t know what I should have done. The rematch will square things away and we’ll see who the best fighter is. I’m not going to do much talking. June 17th will talk for itself. I just hope a week or two before the fight, Andre Ward doesn’t get injured and he has enough [courage] to fight me on June 17th,” said Kovalev.
Kovalev fought well last time against Ward. Kovalev has nothing to be ashamed of. He fought well both on the outside and the inside. Where Kovalev could have done a better job was dealing with Ward’s inside holding. Kovalev wasn’t throwing many punches on the inside, as if he felt that inside fighting wasn’t allowed. Kovalev should have realized after 2 rounds of Ward’s grappling that the remainder of the fight was going to be fought this way. If Kovalev had understood that the referee wasn’t going to step in and penalize Ward for the holding/mauling tactics, then he could have started to fight him on the inside with some short clubbing shots.
In the rematch on June 17, Kovalev will need to prove to Ward that he can fight him on the inside, because if he doesn’t, then the entire fight will likely be fought in close instead of just 10 rounds like the last time. I don’t think Ward cares if the match is boring to watch for the boxing fans. I think he just wants to win at all costs. If that means mauling for 12 rounds on the inside, then I think he’s fully prepared to do that. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ward’s Plan-A is for him to maul/grapple rather than stand and fight on the outside.
If Kovalev shows that he’s dangerous on the inside, then I see Ward switching to Plan-B, which will very likely be circling the ring constantly and throwing single jabs and pot shot right hands followed by a clinch. Kovalev has the ability to get the better of Ward if he uses this plan if he can throw combinations and rough him up on the inside when he falls forward to clinch, which he pretty much always does. Kovalev has to work on the inside and not just hold or try and pry Ward off of him. That takes too much energy to pro someone off of you. Kovalev needs to stay relaxed when Ward is mauling him. That’s what they teach you in wrestling. You can’t use up your strength. Kovalev’s main focus should be to work a hand free to club Ward to get him to stop wanting to fight on the inside. If Kovalev hits Ward hard enough, he’ll give up fighting on the inside for the remainder of the fight. Once that happens, Kovalev will have Ward where he wants him and will be able to dominate him from the outside with his superior skills. At this point in Ward’s career, he’s mainly just an inside fighter. He can’t fight on the outside anymore like he did in 2011 and earlier in his career. Age is starting to show with Ward.
