Andre “SOG” Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) says he’s going to have fun inside the ring in his rematch with Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) in less than 2 weeks on June 17 on HBO PPV at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ward says he’s been working on some adjustments to make in the fight, and he says he’s got his legs back and he’s able to move more.
Ward hasn’t show much mobility since 2011. He lost his leg speed after he stopped fighting on a regular basis after winning the Super Six Tournament in December 2011. The chances of Ward getting his mobility back at this stage in his career are low. Ward has gotten older. Movement won’t help Ward in the rematch with Kovalev though. Kovalev had the better boxing skills of the two when the two fighters were on the outside.
Ward couldn’t compete with Kovalev when the two boxing. Ward had to grapple with Kovalev on the inside by holding, wrestling and mauling in order to keep from being dominated. Even if Ward could turn back the hands of time to go back to when he was fast on his feet at age 25, it would be the wrong thing for him to do against Kovalev.
“For myself, you’re going to see a fighter who rises to the occasion and goes to another level,” said Ward to ESPN about his rematch with Kovalev. “I’m going to have fun in there. I’m going to enjoy myself. Really, I don’t think I had enough fun in the first fight. I’ve been doing things in training camp that I haven’t been doing in a long time. I feel like my legs are back and I’m feeling good.” said Ward.
Ward got hurt when he tried to box with Kovalev. Ward didn’t have the boxing skills to beat Kovalev on the outside. Kovalev nailed Ward with a big right and put him on the canvas. After that knockdown, Ward wanted no part of fighting Kovalev on the outside. Yeah, Ward tried to fight on the outside every now and then when he was taking a breather from his prolonged grappling, and Kovalev always got the better of him.
There was no comparison. Kovalev was leagues better than Ward on the outside. Kovalev actually was having an easier time getting the better of Ward than he was in his 2 fights against Jean Pascal. Kovalev much more problems against Pascal than he did with Ward, who was slower and weaker than Pascal. The only thing Ward was effective at was wrestling Kovaev for long periods of time.
The fight would have been much different if the referee had taken points off from Ward for his grappling, because you can argue that Ward should have lost points because he was tying Kovalev up over and over again. At the very least, the referee should have pulled the two fighters apart so actual fighting could be done. After all, the fight was televised on HBO PPV. A lot of boxing purchased he fight on PPV, and they got very little in return. The referee should have been aware of that, and broken up the long periods of holding that was being done.
Ward is getting too cocky. He didn’t dominate even when he turned the fight to an inside brawl. Kovalev was able to cancel everything Ward did out by wrestling him to a standstill. Boxing News 24 had Kovalev winning 8 rounds to 4. The knockdown that Kovalev got in the 2nd round made the fight tilted more in his favor. If all Ward does is go back to grappling on the inside in the rematch, I don’t think that’ going to be enough for him to win. Kovalev showed that he’s a pretty fair wrestler himself. With all the bragging that Ward is doing, I’d like to hope that he would actually try and fight this time so that the rematch looks more like an actual boxing match rather than a boring MMA fight.
People don’t realize I’ve had some stopping and going in my career. I’ve had some legal battles that I’ve had to push through, but this is the first time I’ve had consistent fights over an extended period of time. I take full responsibility for the earlier part of the fight. But I’m also going to give myself and my team a lot of credit for the way we responded to adversity and the way we battled back, and we’re going to see a tremendous performance,” said Ward.
“I know what I got to do,” said Ward about the Kovalev fight. “Virgil [Hunter] watches more film than me. He’ll tell me certain things and I’ll pick them up.”
Ward makes it sound as if he’s got a lot of different game plans for the Kovalev rematch. The reality is, I think Ward has 2 game plans, and really only one that will work to any degree of success. Ward will try and possibly pot shot on the outside and use his jab. That didn’t work very well for Ward last time. Kovalev had the longer reach, and the far better jab. Kovalev was able to nail Ward with his right hands, and his left hooks. Kovalev consistently got the better of Ward when they were on the outside.
Ward would only let Kovalev fight on the outside for brief moments from rounds 3 to 12, because he wasn’t as good as him. After Kovalev would hit Ward with a shot, Ward would grab him in a clinch ad begin a period of wrestling while the referee stood on and gawked without doing his job and breaking the two fighters apart. Ward’s likely main plan to use against Kovalev is to start wrestling immediately and continue to do that for most of every round.
I think we might see Ward use a variation of the punch and grab technique in which he’ll try and be first each time he’s on the outside, and then immediately fall forward to start wrestling. This is an actual style of fighting that works, but it’s so ugly to watch. If a fighter is smart, he’ll know what his opponent is doing and he’ll combat it by getting his shots off first, and/or taking a step back when his opponent starts to grab.
You have to know what you’re doing though. The fighters that use the punch and grab technique work on it during training camp are very good at this. Kovalev should be prepared to stop this technique. If Kovalev isn’t ready, then it’s a failure on his and his trainer John David Jackson’s part, because it’s only obvious that Ward is going to be doing a lot of grabbing and wrestling in the fight, because that’s the only thing that worked for him last time.
“If he gets it, he might go,” said Ward about Kovalev. “We’re working on different things, making adjustments. I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun. It’s going to be a tough fight. I hope he’s ready for it. For me, it sounds like he thinks he’s just going to come in and take something without any kind of resistance at all. That’s what it sounds like to me. He’s not going to do that. Yeah, a lot faster and a lot better,” said Ward in saying he’s going to push a faster pace in the rematch with Kovalev.