The puncher against the boxer.
We have seen these matches throughout the history of time and the major key to them all is how does the boxer approach the fight.
Sometimes when you are a master boxer like a Floyd Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins or in this case an Andre Ward, your fights aren’t pretty to the casual boxing fan who sees boxing like a video game and just want non stop punching.
There are times when the boxer succumbs to this pressure and decides to prove his manhood by trying to brawl with a beast.
I always use Sugar Ray Leonard as an example of this.
Young Sugar Ray was spectacular boxer, but he also had the heart of a lion, so when he was challenged he would fight like a brawler to prove his manhood.
Sometimes it worked (see Leonard-Hears 1) and other times it didn’t (see Leonard-Duran 1).
As Sugar Ray got older he realized that the best way to win is to just do what he did best, which was frustrate these big punchers with his boxing skills (Leonard-Duran 2 and Leonard-Hagler for example).
Andre Ward says he wants to put on a good show against Kovalev but he also wants to win, meaning what we see Saturday night might not be pretty but it should be effective.
Kovalev is more than just a puncher, but he will be facing a much younger version of Bernard Hopkins in front of him. In his last fight against a far inferior opponent that wouldn’t let him work like he wanted to, he struggled. He didn’t struggle to win, he struggled with trying how to figure out how to get his offense going.
Unless he can figure out a way to land that perfect shot, Ward will suffocate his offense, while connecting with enough punches of his own to cruise to efficient if not exciting Unanimous decision.
Kovalev vs. Ward happens Saturday, November 19 live on pay-per-view beginning at 9pm ET/6pm PT.
Flip the page for JeAndra LeBeauf & Kel Dansby prediction for the fight.