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Boxing in 2014 was underwhelming
for a myriad of reasons already explained but one of the biggest was the lack
of huge fights between the best in a lot of divisions. The Light Heavyweight
division was one of those culprits. Adonis Stevenson was one of those at fault.
Sure we got Kovalev-Hopkins(in a rather one sided and boring fight) but what
the hardcore boxing fans and writers really wanted was Kovalev-Stevenson. Prime
fighters who have left a huge mark on the division lately. But alas, we are
getting probably the next best thing in Kovalev-Pascal. The entire card itself looks to be great as
well as the main event, which always a great thing for boxing.
Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev 26-0(23
KO) vs Jean Pascal 29-2(17 KO)
Jean Pascal lobbied hard for a
superfight between he and Adonis Stevenson, hurling insult after insult at him,
even going so far as to accept a 40-60 split just to get this fight made. All
the boxing community wanted was Adonis to face someone at that level if he
wasn’t going to face Kovalev. After Kovalev’s big win over Bernard Hopkins,
Pascal jumped at the opportunity to face him, giving him his biggest payday in
the process. Kovalev is just a dominating force in the Light Heavyweight
division and comes to fight which is what boxing fans want and what the sport
needs. This matchup is probably the
toughest of his career, while still maintaining that Hopkins was the best
fighter he has faced yet.
Sergey Kovalev has broken the
mold and shown himself to be a great all around fighter despite the immense power
he possesses. His fight against B-Hop showed the ability to stick to a strategy
and stay patient against an incredibly intelligent fighter. The jab, the varied
attack to the head and body, the general ability to adjust to the guy in front
of him. We’re seeing a p4p guy that could eventually turn out to be an ATG
fighter if he continues on the path he’s on. Now, we probably could’ve said
that about Chad Dawson(lol) a couple years back as well, but the statement
still holds true. There is this aura of invincibility around him that other
great guys in the past have had. I think
what we may not have seen in a while is how Kovalev responds to really getting
hit hard by an elite guy and how he does when someone is strong enough to push
him backwards. He had been knocked down by Darnell Boone years back, but that
guy has given tough fight to even some of the best, like Andre Ward and Adonis
Stevenson.
Jean Pascal has had a very
interesting career. A very good one. But for some reason, the perception has
been that of the 3rd guy. “Yeah, Pascal is a tough fighter!”. The
thing about his career is his only 2 losses have come to ATG Bernard Hopkins 4
years ago and future Hall of Famer Carl Froch. His notable wins are handing
former LHW king, Chad Dawson his first loss as well as a win over Lucian Bute
and Adrian Diaconu. Pascal is just a strong and fast fighter with good power in
both hands. He has modeled his fighting style off of Roy Jones Jr. in terms of
the unorthodox nature of his attack as well as keeping his hands very low while
using his athletic gifts to attack as well as slip punches. The problem with
that is, Roy Jones Jr. was virtually unbeatable due to the supreme ability in
his prime. Pascal is a notch below those athletic gifts. He can be hit cleanly
and he does gas in the later rounds of his fights.
Kovalev just needs to be Kovalev.
Throw a bunch of straight punches while applying intelligent pressure. He does
need to be wary of Pascal’s counters and unorthodox nature and try to time him
when he springs forward as he is prone to doing. Pascal’s chin is legit and
sometimes he plays possum to draw his opponents in.
Pascal needs to do a lot to win
this fight, really. His unorthodox style has worked for a while against some of
the best fighters in SMW and LHW but he does have those losses because of stamina
issues or because his attack was timed. The best thing for Pascal to do is not
lunge too much because that will definitely lead to him being hurt. Stay
defensively responsible. But I think he has to push Kovalev back in this fight
even if that isn’t specifically in his nature. You can’t win this fight purely
on the backfoot due to how smart Kovalev is with the attack. He has the speed
advantage so if he IS going to spend a lot of time going backwards he should be
moving quite a bit making Kovalev reset his attack.
All in all I will Pascal would
have to seriously hurt Kovalev or KO him to win this fight straight up. That
might prove to be a tough task. He does have a good enough chin to survive though.
Kovalev UD
Steve “USS” Cunningham 28-6(13
KO) vs Vyacheslav “The Czar” Glazkov 19-0(12 KO)
What we have here is a good
Heavyweight matchup between 2 guys who aren’t actually heavyweights at all. Cunningham
had a good run at Cruiserweight but obviously the money is at Heavyweight, and
Glazkov has campaigned in the division since he began his pro career but he
looks more suited at the lower division as well. Though that may be true, none
of this means they can’t have success in the division they’re in.
We know about Steve Cunningham
and that he’s fighting for his 9 year old daughter who has been sick since
birth with a heart ailment. It’s one of the most compelling stories in boxing and
makes watching his fights that much better. Cunningham has faced the best the the
Cruiserweight division has to offer, from Cuban Joan Pablo Hernandez to Germany’s Marco
Huck. He has 6 losses on his record but he’s a multiple champion and also has
some big wins over the likes of Huck and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk. At heavyweight, since
his loss to Tyson Fury, he’s on a 3 fight winning streak including wins over
undefeated Amir Mansour and Natu Visinia. Cunningham is a good boxer with a
really long reach standing at 82”. He has good movement and jab to offset his
lack of power. He has exhibited some power, though, when he’s willing to sit
down on his punches(as do a lot of similar fighters lol). He does get drawn
into other people’s kind of fights at times and he can be hit if timed. He’s a
good mover and focused but not necessarily a great defensive fighter and has
been hurt and knocked down numerous times.
Glazkov is a former Bronze
medalist and doesn’t have quite the story and resume that Cunningham has but is
on the path to fighting for a HW championship soon enough with a win. He has a
good win over the then 19-1, Tor Hamer but his career has had about 2 disputed
fights occurring against Malik Scott and Derric Rossy. The Scott fight, a lot
of people saw him losing a wide decision in a very boring fight but he luckily
got out of there with a draw. The Rossy fight which was closer, but he again benefitted
from a wide card not based on reality. Glazkov is a good, strong pressure
fighter who has solid but not spectacular power. The problem with Glazkov is
that he gets sucked into inactivity in his fights and often plods forward
without throwing punches. This happened against Malik Scott whose workrate wasn’t
even special in their fight. He has switched trainers but it seems this problem
still plagues him.
For Cunningham to win he needs to
stay off the ropes as much as possible and keep Glazkov engaged with the jab
and counter him when he saunters inside. Glazkov has bouts of inactivity so it
should be easy enough for USS to stick to the gameplan and make the fight easy
for himself and he isn’t exactly very hard to hit.
For Glazkov to win he has to draw
Cunningham into a war. The pressure he applies has gotta be quicker and he has
to be more active when he has his man on the ropes. I think if he hurts
Cunningham early then he has an advantage mentally and can possibly make
Cunningham switch his entire strategy.
I’m going with Cunningham because
I haven’t seen enough impressive to warrant picking Glazkov to win this fight
and because the fighters Cunningham has lost to are all elite in their
division.
Cunningham by UD
Vasily “The Professor” Lepikhin 17-0(9
KO) vs Isaac “Golden Boy” Chilemba 23-2(10 KO)
Here we have another matchup of 2
of the up and coming fighters in a burgeoning Light Heavyweight division. Let’s
get right to it.
What I like from Russia’s Lepikhin
is that he’s a massive 6’4” in the LHW division but that he also has very good
boxing ability to supplement his height. He towers over everyone so he should
use those gifts, right? He also shows surprisingly good dedication to body work.
His fight against Berride was easy because he had a huge size and technical
advantage. The fight against Junior was tougher because he didn’t just stand
there and got inside Lepikhin for a couple rounds. I noticed that he got drawn into
laying on the ropes and not punching in that fight but maybe it was strategic. I
saw him get hit cleanly a couple times and look gassed, though.
The South African Chilemba has the
same measurements as Lepikhin does. Very even match physically. He has some
disputed losses/draws but overall those don’t take away from him as a fighter. He
has the advantage in resume(Vlasov, Bellew, Oosthuizen) by far despite the fact
that Lepikhin is 2 years older than him. That should serve him well. Chilemba
is a good fighter who works off his jab a lot and stays very busy in the ring.
He doesn’t move that much and seems content to box toe to toe a lot of times. That
probably is partly due to solid defense and head movement. Sometimes though, he
tends to lunge a bit and get his head out there open for counters.
For Lephikin to win he needs to time
Chilemba with the right hand over the jab and move his head when he’s on the
offensive. He really needs to keep his workrate solid with the jab as well. Of course,
it’s nice to have a varied attack, but he needs to be wary of just walking
inside without punching on Chilemba because as I said, he’s a busy busy boxer
with a snapping jab. Front or back foot, Lephikin needs to keep his focus.
For Chilemba to win he needs to
outwork Lephikin and keep him occupied as much as he can. He also needs to
provide some angles so Lephikin has to think more about his attack. I think as
evidenced from Lephikin’s last fight, there will be spots where he fades a bit
and leans on the ropes to get his rest. During those moments, Chilemba will
have a chance to land to the body and head while Lephikin covers up.
All of the fights on this card
are just so competitive, man.
I’m going with Lephikin by SD
