The Problem With Hanging Around To Long!! (Contains Spoilers)

Well my prediction couldn't have been more wrong. Firstly anyone who said that Nathan would be stopped, fair play. Whilst I appreciated Kovalevs power it was a more a case of the fighters he had been in with than the power he possessed. To a degree I still think that is the case, I mean...do I think that he will go on to dominate Light-Heavyweight...no, not at all. In fact I think he will be exposed as soon as he steps up. Whilst I readily admit that I though Cleverly would fight his way to a UD I did say on the podcast that my concern was he would try to trade/leave his chin out.

I have always been fairly critical of Frank Warren, basically off just what fighters have said...whilst clearly it should be taken at face value, when there are numerous people saying the same thing I am of the belief that their is a degree of truth in what people may believe. He has often been accused of holding fighters back, whilst some would argue that it is a good thing, I don't think there is a better argument against the way he does business than tonight.

I always understood the negativity towards Nathan because lets face it he was a World Champion who never stood up to a proper challenge, until tonight obviously. Yet I can't help but feel aggrieved for him after this evening. For me tonight showed everything that is wrong with the milking machine that is Frank. I remember watching Nathan just towards the end of his degree, 21 and looking mightely impressive I genuinlely thought the world may be his oyster. Very young to think that clearly but he seemed to know what to do in the ring and how to approach each fight. Fast forward to tonight and he looked clueless...a result of his talent or result of his match making. Well if were honest with ourselves...like I hope he is....a result of his match making. He has done nothing but regress in the last two years...at a time when he should of been pushing onwards and upwards. He became laxadaiscal and overconfident...relying on his chin and pure prowess to get him past fighters who quite frankly weren't on his level.

I saw nothing in the last 18 months that made me think he had improved, rather I thought he had become complacent and over-reliant on his work ethic alone, sadly I didn't think it would be exposed tonight. Whilst I wish him the best and hope he recovers and comes back stronger, I do feel this should be a lesson to all that stagnating and picking up pay cheques is no way to secure a future or legacy in boxing...

My concern now......Carl Frampton....Billy Joe Saunders...I hope your reading because you need to get out as quickly as possible.

I think Kovalev is the real deal and will clean up at light heavy. He's also known for having an iron chin having never been knocked down in 215 amateur fights.

To be fair, Kovalev stepped up tonight. Cleverly is decent opposition and he blew him away. I cannot think of anyone currently in LH who will clearly expose him. He has set up some interesting fights for the future though. I hope Hopkins isn't one of them, though. Too much negativity in that fight for me.

I think Kovalov had too much precision in his punches to be a complete hype job. Not really a wild banger but an accurate puncher who is quite tough. I'll wait to judge him. I predicted this sort of thing - from the eastern european lot. They've been so rigid in the amateur stage for so long, that they took a little while to get going. Now however, they are beginning to chuck out people like golovkin, kovalov etc who are more fluid, dynamic and powerful than their stiff countrymen. Good days ahead for boxing.

Thats how these things go. Back to the drawing board for Clev

At least Kovalev has finally rid us of the nonentity that is Cleverley (at least for a bit anyway). I for one was very impressed with him. As Shah sais he has a lot of precision in his punches and if that stat that Strongy stated about him having no knockdowns in 215 amateur fights is true then he's going to be a handful.

I fancy seeing Kovalev - Stevenson. Bombs away!

The thing that impressed me most with Kolalev as when Clev was on wobbley legs and his head was moving all over the place Kolalev knew exactly what angles to throw and caught Clev perfectly each time. The accuracy was frightning. This is all Warrens fault. Having Clev fighting nobodies then setting him in a situation where NONE of those defences were useable for what Kolalev had to dish out was suicide. Hopefully Clev bounces back. This could be the major wake up he needs. Also, Clev was covering up like we wud have wanted him too do, but even a tight guard didn't do one bit of difference, Kolalevs shots still got through and tore him to bits. I know me and steffan have had words about clev but I do feel for him. He is better than that fight showed. Hope he does things the right way going forward and gets a proper trainer and uses his attributes to good effect when it comes up to fighting top world level fighters. Best of luck to him and I hope he comes back.

Agreed about the clinical nature of the finish - could have forgiven Kovalev for getting wild and over-excited given the chance to finish it, but he stayed very composed and put some brilliant punches together to get Clev out of there.

What troubled me was Clev's body language during the fight - I got the impression that he knew he was taking on more than he could handle. Whether that's due to the poor opposition he's been in with taking some of his sharpness away, or Kovalev just being better than him eight days a week I dunno. But there seemed to be only one guy in there who really believed he would win, and had visualised exactly how he would do it.

Fair play to Kovalev though, really impressive performance to rip the title away. Hope there's no talk whatsoever of a rematch...

Cast a Shadow wrote:Agreed about the clinical nature of the finish - could have forgiven Kovalev for getting wild and over-excited given the chance to finish it, but he stayed very composed and put some brilliant punches together to get Clev out of there.

What troubled me was Clev's body language during the fight - I got the impression that he knew he was taking on more than he could handle. Whether that's due to the poor opposition he's been in with taking some of his sharpness away, or Kovalev just being better than him eight days a week I dunno. But there seemed to be only one guy in there who really believed he would win, and had visualised exactly how he would do it.

Fair play to Kovalev though, really impressive performance to rip the title away. Hope there's no talk whatsoever of a rematch...

I got the impression at the weigh-in Cleverly was a bit spooked. He looked young and inexperienced.

Time to ditch Vince I think. Clev can come back but with some hard work and a different style. At least my £75 seen Enzo actually win  

Strongback wrote:I think Kovalev is the real deal and will clean up at light heavy. He's also known for having an iron chin having never been knocked down in 215 amateur fights.

Not If Ward moves there..

A move to Hearn...............and a wait for Bellew to beat the one dimensional Stevenson....

Is probably most likely to occur in the next few months..

This could be a real blessing for Clev. I was a fan as he was making his way up but, like everyone, got the hump with his inactivity/fighting bums whilst mascarading as a 'champion'. He'd drop B-Hop's name in to almost every other interview whilst never really ever making any attempt to fight him.

We could see him with Hearn now, back on Sky, fighting regularly and that bit back between his teeth. Wherever he fights, I hope he gets the hunger back as there are plenty of great fights out there for him.

Not sure it's a blessing. I can see the argument that he needs to remember to box instead of playing the hard man, and that this might be a salutary lesson. However, there's getting a scare... A wake up call... and there's being taken to the cleaners and having your confidence shattered. He prided himself on his toughness and chin and he's just been humiliated.

Personally I  don't see him coming back at the highest level. I was never a fan, but I really hope he knuckles down and proves me wrong.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:

Strongback wrote:I think Kovalev is the real deal and will clean up at light heavy. He's also known for having an iron chin having never been knocked down in 215 amateur fights.

Not If Ward moves there..

Yep, Ward's the main man at light heavy if he wants to be. Certainly looking more and more likely that that is where his future lies if he is to go down as one of the greats.

I think Kovalev was great, away from home in front of a passionate Welsh crowed and he was as cool as a cucumber. thought he had decent speed and you could see that his shots where hurting from the go. And when he had Nathan hurt he finished perfectly. Given that Nathan has a good reach and good boxing ability I would say that Kovalev is going to take some beating. But like with any fighter that counts on power you will all ways question how he could bare should he been taken into later rounds, and if he will have anything else to offer.

I think people would pay to see ward kovalev. If would get my attention.

Ward has more experience as a pro and certainly wouldn't get drawn into a war with Kovalev. The fight would be much more of a boxing match but the evidence was there for everyone to see last night Kovalev walked through Cleverly's punches to land his own super accurate blows. A superb puncher with a granite chin is a rare commodity in boxing. My feeling is the Russian is a pretty complete fighter although his footwork is nothing to shout home about. He crosses his feet a lot and can lose his balance. A slickster like Ward would expose this.

Kovalev needs a couple more fights to hype up his rep and add polish before facing Ward.

His mixing up of punches from body to head and the angles he creates marks him out as one of the best punchers in world boxing. I'm expecting a bright future.

Disagree Kovalev looked ordinary but could dig..........Cleverley was woeful and turned out to be the ordinary hyped up fighter wsome of us thought him to be.....

There's nothing ordinary about Kovalev's punching ability. There's a lot more to it than having a good dig.

I see him cleaning up the LHW division. Not as good as GGG but still very good.

"Ballbag" Bellew was at it again on Twitter after the fight:



Tony Bellew @TonyBellew 18h
I stand by my original judgement of Kovalev! He's very strong but look closely! His power covers many mistakes He won't be champ long! #Fact


(Tony likes hitting the exclamation mark key).


One thing is for sure and that is Kovalev would still be champion after fighting Bellew. Tony wouldn't last 3 rounds.


Also note Bellew's use of the word "fact". Who does that remind you of?

Strongback wrote:
Also note Bellew's use of the word "fact".  Who does that remind you of?

A Kumquat?