By Tom Donelson / Author, Member of Boxing Writers Association of America. Our mutual friend Rusty Rubin (R.I.P.) was instrumental in connecting Tom to dmboxing.com in 2008.
Sergey Kovalev faces Andre Ward in their second bout. For Kovalev, this represents revenge as he felt that he won their first fight and he certainly had a good case. Ward managed to win a close bout on the judges’ score card but in their first bout, Ward did not look like the Ward of old using his speed and defense to avoid getting hit while countering effectively. Whether this was due to his age, past injuries or the early power of Kovalev, Ward did not look like the fighter who dominated the Super Middleweight division against some of the elite fighters of that division.
The question will be if Ward can recapture some of his youth and show the defensive skills that allowed him to prosper in the Super Middleweight. Kovalev is a solid boxer with power go to with his sound techniques. Throughout the bout, his punches had more pop and this was self-evident over the first four rounds in which he sent Ward down for an eight count while taking a big lead on the cards. Starting in the third round, Ward simply turned the fight into a brawl and fought on the inside of the powerful Russian.
