The recent
history of three-time Light-Heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev has been
marked by highs and lows. A better way to describe it perhaps is ups and downs.
As most recall, Kovalev emerged on the Boxing scene by putting together a
significant string of knockouts and winning a world championship in the
Light-Heavyweight division in the process. Kovalev’s rise was not all that
unlike the rise of former longtime Middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin
in that both established reputations as “Knockout Artists” in the sport.
Both
however, have seen recent struggles and setbacks in their respective careers.
In regard to Golovkin, he has seen his reign atop the Middleweight division
come to an end in two hotly contested bouts with Saul “Canelo“ Alvarez. Two
fights where he earned a controversial draw and a perhaps more controversial
loss in the rematch. While many including this observer felt Golovkin won both
fights against Alvarez and expect a third encounter between the two to take
place at some point in the future, the loss Golovkin suffered in the second
fight did cast some doubt in the eyes of some in regard to how much he might
have left as a fighter.
For Sergey
Kovalev, his career has seen more than one setback. Some might recall in losing
a close, but unanimous decision and the loss of his unified Light-Heavyweight
world championship to undefeated Super-Middleweight world champion Andre Ward
in November 2016. This was followed by a somewhat controversial stoppage in
their rematch in June 2017, the first knockout loss of Kovalev’s career.
Following Ward’s retirement later that year, Kovalev was able to rebound and
regain a portion of the Light-Heavyweight world championship by scoring a
knockout win over Vycheslav Shabranskyy in November 2017.
Although one
could say that the politics of the sport played a role in Kovalev fighting for
a world championship for a third straight time coming off of consecutive losses
to Andre Ward, both losses did have elements of controversy attached to them.
It was indisputable however, that Kovalev outclassed Shabranskyy. A victory
over a “Game”, but over matched opponent did not quell some of the doubt
surrounding Kovalev following those two losses to Ward.
In his first
title defense after regaining the WBO world championship in the
Light-Heavyweight division, Kovalev would suffer his second knockout loss in
brutal fashion at the hands of undefeated top contender Eleider Alvarez in
August of last year. As he had done after suffering the first loss of his
career against Andre Ward, Kovalev elected to have an immediate rematch against
Alvarez in February of this year.
To the
surprise of some Kovalev showed he could box and produced one of the better
performances of his career by out boxing Alvarez over twelve rounds to regain
the WBO championship for the second time. Even though Kovalev has proven on
more than one occasion that he is more than a seek and destroy “Knockout
Artist”, there are likely those who are skeptical and are questioning how much
the thirty-six year old has left at this stage of his career.
While there
were ramblings over recent months that Kovalev was at least rumored to fight
Saul Alvarez in a bout that would see Alvarez move up in weight to challenge
Kovalev for his world championship, the three-time world champion will instead
make the first defense of his third reign as champion against undefeated WBO
number one contender Anthony Yarde on Saturday in Chelyabinsk, Russia in a
fight they can be seen here in the United States on digital sports streaming
network ESPN+.
This will be
a battle of experience versus youth. Yarde will enter the fight unbeaten in
eighteen professional fights. What will make this fight interesting is this
will be the first time that Kovalev will be facing a fighter, who much like
himself has developed a reputation as a “Knockout Artist.” In his eighteen
victories as a professional, Yarde has scored knockouts in seventeen of his
eighteen wins registering a career knockout percentage of 94%. This is higher
than Kovalev’s career knockout percentage of 76%, but for the majority of his
career, Kovalev’s percentage has been above 80% having scored knockouts in twenty-eight
of his thirty-three career wins.
Two things
that interest me about this fight. Firstly, in regard to the champion is whether
he will continue to be more of a boxer than looking to use his punching power.
Though Kovalev is more known as a “Knockout Artist”, he has shown he can box.
This was noticeable both in his last fight where he regained the WBO
championship as well as in his unification bout against future Hall of Famer
Bernard Hopkins in November 2014. When he decides to execute a tactical Boxing
strategy the champion has proven difficult to combat, perhaps more difficult
depending on one’s perspective than when he approaches a fight with the intent
of scoring a knockout.
The second
aspect of this fight of interest to this observer will center on Anthony Yarde
and how he will handle the “Big Fight Atmosphere.” Yarde has established
himself as a rising star on the United Kingdom’s Boxing scene, but it is
important to remember that despite his impressive resume and near-perfect
knockout percentage, this will be his first world championship fight. Fighting
for a world championship for the first time alone can understandably cause a
fighter’s nerves to be high, but Yarde will also be fighting for that world
championship in the champion’s home country where the atmosphere and crowd
support will likely be in Kovalev’s favor.
A curiosity
that some might wonder as this fight approaches will be how Yarde will attempt
to approach Kovalev. Yarde has only been the distance once in his career. It
came in the challenger’s second professional fight against Stainislavs Makarenko
in June 2015. A fight that went a distance of four rounds.
While this
should be taken with a grain of salt given that it was only Yarde’s second
fight as a professional, it may serve as an indicator that he might not be intent
on going into the deep waters of this fight. Yarde has never fought beyond
seven rounds in his career and with the knowledge that Kovalev has been knocked
out before, it will be interesting to see if the twenty-eight year old will
seek a quick knockout here. A possible interesting tactic the champion could
attempt to implement here, despite having the ability to end a fight quickly in
his own right is to possibly look to extend the challenger into the middle and
late rounds of the fight into territory that Yarde has not yet been in his
career.
From a
stylistic standpoint, this has all the makings of a fight that might not go the
distance on paper. Both fighters have punching power, and both can get an opponent
out of there if the opportunity presents itself. The question might be whether
or not the thirty-six year old champion will use the experience he has gained
throughout his career to his advantage or if he will be more than willing to
engage in a shoot out with Yarde where the winner may simply come down to who
can land their power punches first. Either way, in an era where the sport’s
respective sanctioning organizations are routinely criticized for flaws in
their rankings criteria and where sometimes mandatory challengers prove to be
not ready to face a world champion on fight night, this is one fight where a
world champion will face his mandatory challenger where regardless of the
outcome will likely be entertaining for as long as it lasts.
“And That’s
The Boxing Truth.”
Kovalev vs.
Yarde takes place on Saturday, August 24th at the Traktor Sport
Palace in Celyabinsk, Russia. The fight can be seen in the United States on
digital subscription sports streaming network ESPN+ beginning at 12:30PM ET/ 9:30AM
PT. ESPN+ is available through the ESPN app on mobile, tablet, connected
streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Playstation 4, and
connected smart TVs for $4.99 per month or $59.99 per year. For more
information about ESPN+, a full list of schedules, compatible streaming devices
and platforms, and to subscribe please visit: www.espnplus.com.
In the
United Kingdom and Ireland, the fight can be seen on BT Sport 2 beginning at
5PM (Saturday, August 24th Local UK Time.) For more information
about BT Sport including schedules and availability in your area please visit: www.sport.bt.com. Check your local listings
internationally.
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