IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) and unbeaten former super middleweight champion Andre “SOG” Ward (30-0, 15 KOs) met earlier today for their New York press conference to promote their November 19 fight on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Kovalev-Ward press conference took place at the Le Parker Meridien. The fight is being promoted as a match-up between the #2 pound-for-pound fighter Kovalev and the #4 pound-for-pound Ward. I’m not sure that either of these guys deserves their places in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list, but it’s still a good fight.
The real question about the Kovalev-Ward fight is whether Ward has enough left in the tank to beat Kovalev after his many years of inactivity. I say no. I don’t think he can. I saw enough of Ward’s last three fights to realize that he’s not going to be able to come back to the fighter he was 2,000 yesterday’s ago. I think that version of Ward no longer exists and will not be brought back no matter how many fights he takes. He can fight Kovalev four times per year for the next five years, and I don’t see Ward ever going back to the fighter he was.
I think Ward is perhaps little more than 60% of the fighter he was. The only question now is can Ward at 60% beat a fighter like Kovalev? I think not, but we’re going to find out if I’m right or not in the next two months when these fighters get in the ring on November 19 to find out who is the better man. You can’t even say that the winner of the Ward vs. Kovalev fight will be the No.1 or even the No.2 fighter in the light heavyweight division, because they would need to still fight WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson and two of the red hot contenders Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr. to prove whether they’re the best.
Once the smoke clears from those fights, then you can say that one of those guys is the true No.1 fighter in the light heavyweight vision. If those fights never happen, then it’ll be one of those situations where the boxing world will be divided in who they consider to be the top dog at 175.
The 32-year-old Ward is clearly not the fighter he was five years ago when he was at the top of his game in the Super Six tournament in 2011 after beating Carl Froch. That was the zenith of Ward’s career, and he should have moved on to fight Lucian Bute immediately and then became a big star by staying active and moving among weight divisions to get the best possible fights at all times. Instead, Ward’s career slowed to a crawl with him missing a lot of action while fighting only five times in a five-year time span. It was only recently that Ward resumed his career after a two-year layoff, and he’s now put together three wins over Paul Smith, Sullivan Barrera and Alexander Brand. These are not good fighters, and Ward looked nothing like the guy that he used to be in the Super Six tournament.
“When those bright lights come on who it’s all about who executes and who gets it done,” said Ward. “I don’t have to throw chairs. I don’t have to cuss. I don’t have to act crazy. I said let’s fight, lets fight. You’re selling yourself. I know that what I possess and what I have is in me, and not on me.”
It sounds like Ward and Kovalev aren’t going to have much excitement and friction between them in the buildup for their November 19 fight. That’s not good for them nor is it good for the boxing world. The fights that sell are the ones where there is trash talking. the fact that Ward and Kovalev are playing it nice with each other suggests that this fight might not ever get off the ground so to speak in getting a lot of buzz from the fans. They’re going to need to think about generating some animosity from somewhere if they want to attract the casual boxing fans to this fight. They obviously can count on the hardcore fans to tune into the fight on November 19, but there aren’t enough of those type of fans to make this fight a success.
I’m just going to get it out there by saying I think Ward is now too old to beat Kovalev, and I think the fight is past it’s sell date. It should have happened years ago when Ward was still in his prime. Ward is still young in terms of chronological years at 32, but in my opinion, he fights like he’s seven years older than that age. I think Ward fights like someone 39-years-old now, not 32. That’s a BIG problem that Ward has, considering that he’s going to need to be the fighter he was many years ago for him to have a chance of beating Kovalev. The Russian fighter is one of the top four fighters in the 175lb division. I don’t think Kovalev is the best, but he’s one of the best.
Stevenson is probably the best with Beterbiev the No.2 guy, and then Kovalev at No.3, and then Ward and Joe Smith tied for the 4 spot. With Ward no longer in the prime of his career, he’s going to have a real problem when he gets inside the ring with Kovalev on November 19, since he’s not fast any longer and he doesn’t throw a lot of punches. Ward can’t count on beating Kovalev by clinching him and wrestling for 12 rounds like we saw with many of his fights in the Super Six tournament. Kovalev is too strong to be wrestled on the inside by Ward. If Ward wants to beat Kovalev, he’s going to need to be able to increase his work rate tenfold, because he does not throw enough punches to get the job done with the way he’s fighting now.
Kovalev, 33, was brief today in what he had to say to the boxing media. He basically said he wants to put on a great fight on November 19 against Ward.
“I just want to give the fans a really great fight in Vegas and on HBO Pay-Per-View,” said Kovalev.
What this boils down to is Kovalev wanting to turn his fight against Ward into a brawl that the fans won’t forget. In other words, Kovalev wants to entertain the fans by forcing the tactically oriented Ward into breaking out of that mold and just fighting him in an old fashioned style. We haven’t see Ward fighting like that during his career ever, and I don’t think he can fight like that even if he wanted to.
Ward is too up there in age, and he has too much rust on his game that appears to have hardened to the point where it will never come off. What this means is that if the Kovalev-Ward fight is going to be an exciting one for the boxing fans, it’s going to be entirely up to Kovalev to make it that kind of fight, as I don’t think Ward can fight in an exciting style. It’s not the way he fights, and I don’t think his machinery is oiled well enough for him to fight a hard 12 rounds without blowing out something, whether it be a shoulder, knee, or what have you.