The day of August 24, 2019 in the sport of Boxing
featured two world championship fights in the Light-Heavyweight and Jr.
Bantamweight divisions. The first of these bouts took place at the Traktor
Sport Palace in Chelyabinsk, Russia as three-time World Light-Heavyweight
champion Sergey Kovalev made the first defense of his third reign as a world
champion against undefeated WBO number one Light-Heavyweight contender Anthony
Yarde. Despite this being a well-matched encounter style wise between two
fighters who are known as “Knockout Artists “, this turned out to be a somewhat
surprising tactical battle.
The champion controlled most of the first half of the
fight working behind a consistent jab and mixing in combinations. While
Kovalev’s approach was not unlike the strategy he used in regaining the WBO
Light-Heavyweight world championship in a twelve round unanimous decision win
over Elieder Alvarez earlier this year, what impressed me was how he kept his
calm and was not overly aggressive. Periodic body punches from Yarde however,
gradually took effect on the the champion.
It was the sporadic body work Yarde was able to establish
that created an opening in round eight when a hook to the body set off a
barrage of punches that staggered Kovalev. Although Kovalev did not go down and
was able to survive the assault that the challenger had dished out, it was
Yarde’s best round in a fight that he was not consistent in terms of activity
and at times appeared frustrated due to the tactics implemented by the
champion.
Despite the ebb and flow appearing to shift in Yarde’s
favor, Kovalev was able to bounce back by regaining control of the fight in the
ninth round and brought the fight to a conclusion by knocking Yarde down for
the count with a half jab/half left hook to successfully retain his world
championship. While Kovalev survived an onslaught by Yarde in the eighth round,
he also produced another impressive performance by being a tactical boxer and
not necessarily a seek and destroy “Knockout Artist.” There was also a
questionable moment in between rounds eight and nine that will be discussed
along with what might be in the champion’s future later in this column.
The second world title fight that took place was a battle
for the WBC Jr. Bantamweight world championship between two-division world
champion Juan Francisco Estrada defending his recently won WBC crown against
WBC number fourteen rated contender Dwayne Beamon at the Multiple Use Center in
Sonora, MX. This was Estrada’s first defense of the WBC crown that he won
earlier this year in his second fight against former champion Srisaket Sor
Rungvisai. What was of interest to me about this fight centered around how
Estrada would do in his first fight since the rematch with Sor Rungvisai.
Although Estrada did not fight Sor Rungvisai in back to back fights, the two
bouts between the two were grueling battles and also served to shine the light
on Boxing’s lower weight divisions. In regard to the latter, though Boxing’s
lower weight classes have always seemed to be hit or miss with regard to
television network coverage here in the United States, specifically amongst the
traditional cable/satellite television medium, the lower weight classes the
sport has to offer has been given a platform on digital sports streaming
networks such as DAZN and ESPN+.
What this fight also had was a bit of the element of the
unknown as Beamon was a relative unknown, but did enter the encounter with
Estrada having won sixteen of his previous eighteen professional fights. The
question that is usually posed when a relatively unknown contender gets an
opportunity to fight for a world championship is one with two parts.
Part one how will the fighter deal with facing a fighter
who in all likelihood has a significant edge in terms of overall experience and
more specifically, experience at or near the top of the sport. This is followed
by part two of the question, how will said fighter handle the atmosphere of
fighting for a world championship for the first time. The latter part of the
question is one that many world-class fighters eventually have to answer. In
this case, this two-part question was certainly valid to ask, especially given
that of his sixteen previous wins, only five of those bouts came against
fighters that one could consider as having winning records. Beamon’s one
previous loss also came again a fighter by the name of Martin Tecuapetia, who
has a record of 13-9-4, with 10 Knockouts.
Although some may view this as a red flag, it should be
noted that the loss for Beamon in August of last year was a split decision that
he was able to avenge in a rematch two months later. Nevertheless, the loss
coupled with a lack of overall notable opposition did make this observer
question whether or not Beamon would be ready to fight for a world championship.
Although Beamon was very aggressive and attempted to bring the fight to
Estrada, the difference in both experience and overall skill was apparent early
on.
Estrada was credited with two knockdowns in round two.
The first, which I did not believe should have been ruled a knockdown came when
the two fighters legs appeared to get tangled while Estrada was throwing a
punch. This turned out to be academic as Estrada scored a second knockdown of
Beamon moments later. Despite his aggressiveness, Beamon at times appeared
clumsy and this seemed to play into Estrada’s hands. Even though Estrada was in
control of the combat for most of the fight, there were periods where he chose
to showboat for the crowd in attendance and taunt the challenger.
While this may have been in response to some taunting coming
from Beamon, I feel such tactics are unnecessary and do not do a fighter the
caliber of Estrada any good. The opinion of this observer notwithstanding,
Estrada did put forth an impressive performance overall and was able to stop the
very “Game” Beamon in the ninth round to retain his WBC world championship.
As for what’s next for Estrada, it would not surprise me
to see a third encounter with
Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Each fighter has won one fight
each and both of those bouts were competitive. Though it is rare to say that anything
regarding how fights are made is simple, given that the two fighters together
were able to garner more attention for some of the sport’s lower weight
divisions than had previously been the case, a third fight between the two
makes all the sense in the world.
Now we return to the subject of Sergey Kovalev. Although
he was able to weather the storm in the eighth round of his victory over
Anthony Yarde, it cannot and should not be ignored what occurred in his corner
between rounds eight and nine. Kovalev’s trainer former world champion Buddy
McGirt told his fighter that if he did not show him something in the ninth
round that he was going to stop the fight. McGirt stated that he felt the
champion was taking too many punches.
Although it is not uncommon for a trainer to say such
things, it should be noted that McGirt, who has gone on to have a Hall of Fame
career as a trainer after having one as a fighter winning world titles in
multiple divisions, was also in the corner of Maxim Dadashev, who died as a
result of injuries he suffered in his fight against Subriel Matias nearly one
month to the day of Kovalev’s fight against Anthony Yarde. Some might question
why McGirt, who was praised by many including this observer for stopping the Dadashev
fight, when Dadashev wanted to continue, would threaten to stop this fight
involving Sergey Kovalev.
It should not be overlooked that despite his pleas of
wanting to fight on, Dadashev collapsed while attempting to leave the ring
after the fight was stopped. While some might also question given the circumstances
of Dadeshev’s passing whether McGirt should have been working in the corner so
soon after the tragedy, his threat to stop the Kovalev-Yarde fight did succeed
in getting his fighter to get back to his fight plan and ultimately
successfully defend his championship. Only Buddy McGirt can say what he was
thinking, but the man has earned a reputation as one of the best and most
sought after trainers in the sport. More important than that and his own accomplishments
as a fighter, McGirt cares for his fighters and no one should question his concern for the well-being of his fighters.
As for what’s next for Kovalev, he has stated that he
wants to fight Saul “Canelo” Alvarez next. Sergey Kovalev still has the name
recognition clout to attract lucrative fights. The question may be whether
Alvarez is willing to move up two weight classes from where he currently sits
as a unified Middleweight world champion to challenge Kovalev in the
Light-Heavyweight division. Something that will likely be answered in time.
“And That’s The Boxing Truth.”
The Boxing Truth®️ is a registered trademark of Beau Denison
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