By Allan Fox: Trainer Virgil Hunter thinks Andre Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) won’t get credit if he beats IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) in their fight on November 19. Hunter thinks that people in the boxing world will give Isaac Chilemba credit for creating the blueprint in how to beat Kovalev in their fight last July.
Chilemba lost the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but he showed that it was possible to hit Kovalev with pot shots while he was coming forward. Unfortunately for Chilemba, he couldn’t stop Kovalev from coming forward, outworking him, and landing the harder shots.
Curtis “Cerebral Assassin” Stevens (28-5, 21 KOs) returns to the ring and the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on the Kovalev-Ward “Pound For Pound” non-televised undercard to face James “The King” De La Rosa (23-4, 13 KOs) in a ten-round middleweight showdown.
Stevens, 31, of Brownsville, Brooklyn returned to the ring on May 7 of this year and stopped previously undefeated Brazilian prospect Patrick Teixeira in the second round on the HBO Pay-Per-View® undercard of Canelo-Khan. The victory over Teixeira catapulted Stevens back into the ranking of all four sanctioning bodies, including top ten ratings in both the IBF and WBC. He is hoping to continue that momentum and secure another shot at the middleweight title.
De La Rosa, 28, is originally from Mexico but now resides in San Benito, Texas. His most recent win was a unanimous decision upset over former title contender Alfredo Angulo on the undercard of Mayweather-Maidana. De La Rosa has suffered two back-to-back losses since his win over Angulo but both have come at the hands of two previously undefeated prospects in Hugo Centeno Jr. and Jason Quigley. Commonly, fighters in his position would prefer a tune-up to get back on a winning track but, in this case, De La Rosa opted out of that easy route and decided to test himself against another former title contender in Stevens.
By Eric Baldwin: Former super middleweight champion Andre “SOG” Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) has had his game plan set for the fight against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) on November 19 at the T-Mobile Arena in Oakland, California.
Ward has the boxing IQ in his favor along with a boatload of experience. Ward has been facing better opposition his entire career. Kovalev could find himself over-matched in this fight if he’s unable to KO Ward with one of his big shots.
By Allan Fox: Light heavyweight world champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev doesn’t care challenger Andre Ward in what he thinks and how he’s going about his preparation for their fight on November 19 next month on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ward, 31, told the boxing media recently that he’s only see one of Kovalev’s past fights in seeing his rematch against Jean Pascal last January.
Kovalev won the fight by a 7th round stoppage in a one-sided contest. Kovalev’s response to learning that Ward had only seen one of his past fights was one of disinterest. Kovalev says he doesn’t care what Ward watches or what he thinks about as he gets prepared for their fight on November 19. Kovalev says he’s only thinking about his own training, and about winning the fight.
By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev is predicting a win or Nathan Cleverly (29-3, 15 KO) in his title challenge against longstanding WBA “regular” light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer (48-2, 35 KOs) this Saturday night in Germany. Kovalev thinks the 29-year-old Cleverly will beat the 37-year-old Braehmer. Kovalev doesn’t see it as an easy fight for Cleverly thought, because he notes that the German Braehmer has a good chin and can take heavy shots.
It’s hard to know how good Braehmer is. We know what Cleverly’s level is, as we saw him lose to Kovalev by a 4th round knockout in 2013, and then lose to Tony Bellew by a 12 round split decision in their rematch in 2014, and then lose to Andrzej Fonfara by a 12 round unanimous decision in October 2015.
By Allan Fox: Uneaten Andre Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) will be the smaller and weaker fighter when he gets inside the ring with IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) on November 19 in their fight on HBO pay-per-view. Trainer Abel Sanchez has made up his mind a long time ago about who will come out on top in this fight between the two unbeaten 175lb fighters.
Sanchez feels that Kovalev will have too much size and punching power for Ward to deal with in this fight, and he sees Kovalev beating him just like he did Bernard Hopkins in 2014. In other words, Sanchez expects Kovalev to stay on the outside and box Ward so that he doesn’t let him get close.
By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will have his fight between his stable fighters Manny Pacquiao and Jessie Vargas competing on November 5 in the same month as the arguably much compelling fight between light heavyweights Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward on November 19 on HBO pay-per-view. With these two separate cards taking place in the same month, it means that boxing fans will be need to make a decision which of the two that they’ll be purchasing.
With the HUGE costs of cable in the United States, it’s asking a lot of the boxing public to purchase two pay-per-view cards in the same month in November. By having two PPV cards in the same month, it doubles the monthly bill of the average cable bill from $103, according to Fortune, to over $200. That’s a lot of money for many fans of the sport, which is why one of the two PPV fights will suffer.
By Scott Gilfoid: WBA World light heavyweight champion Juergen Braehmer is looking past 29-year-old Nathan Cleverly for their fight this Saturday night in Germany. After fighting for 17 years as a pro and still without one career defining fight on his entire resume, Braehmer is saying he would like to fight either WBC champion Adonis Stevenson or IBF/WBA/WBO 175lb champion Sergey Kovalev.
Braehmer says he’d like to fight one or both of those guys before he wraps up his long career. At 37, Braehmer says he’s beating guys 10 years younger than himself. This is true. Braehmer is beating younger guys. However, he’s not being tested at all due to the younger guys being largely mediocre fighters and not the quality young guys like Artur Beterbiev, Joe Smith Jr. or Andre Ward.
The young guys that Braehmer has been beating are fighters like Konni Konrad, Pawel Glazewski, Robin Krasniqi, Eduard Guknecht and Roberto Feliano Bolonti. Those aren’t good fighters in my opinion, and I don’t think any of them should be ranked in the top 100 in the light heavyweight division, let alone in the top 15.
By Allan Fox: Trainer John David Jackson says he plans on having his fighter IBF/WBA/WBO Light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev target Andre Ward’s bad shoulder that he’s had problems with when they face each other on November 19 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are a lot of boxing fans that are excited about this fight. Let’s hope this match-up doesn’t turn out to be a dud like the much hyped Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight from last year. There are still a lot of angry fans about that high-priced dud.
Jackson specifically wants Kovalev to land his big power shots on Ward’s shoulder area, and try and break or hurt it enough to where he can’t use it. Jackson says it’s legal to punch to the shoulders, and he wants to make Ward quit.
By Allan Fox: Trainer Abel Sanchez is sticking with his pick of IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) having too much power and size for former super middleweight champion Andre “SOG” Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) for their fight in less than two months on November 19 on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sanchez has noticed that the 32-year-old Ward has lost a lot from his game since coming back to the sport in 2015 following a two-year layoff from boxing. Ward hasn’t looked like the same fighter despite being put in with three soft opponents in a row in Paul Smith, Sullivan Barrera and Alexander Brand. Sanchez says that Ward was given every opportunity to look like a star by being put in with those three fighters, and he either couldn’t or wouldn’t do the job.
