I admittedly haven't seen all that much of Kovalev, but from what I have seen the guy does look pretty savage. Cleverley has really gone off the boil lately but I get the feeling he might be one of those guys who fights to the level of his opposition. Hard to call, gonna watch a bit more of Kovalev.
Agreed. Kovalev seems clearly better, more destructive guy but he is still untested while Cleverly seems to at least have guts. A very interesting and in all likelihood an entertaining fight
I agree that Cleverly might fight to the level of his opposition. I really like the best versions of him. Kovalev is really hurting what he hits. Campillo had travel excuses, but Kovalev just destroyed him. That's extremely impressive to me until Kovalev is shown to be not as good as he seems. I like both of these guys a lot. Would have preferred that each improved their standing fighting someone else. I guess I'd prefer to see Kovalev win impressively since guys like him are more fun to watch, but Cleverly might be that Calzaghe puzzle that matches up against anyone.
Make or break time for Cleverly. I was a big fan as he moved up through the ranks and he has all the tools but his 'title reign' has been completely underwhelming thus far. This is his first really big test and I can definitely see why some think he might step up again and put on a performance tomorrow - part of me also wonders if there is a bit of Calzaghe about him (other than both being sheep-shaggers). On the other hand, Kovalev might just fucking blast him to pieces; his power looks pretty legit to me and this is a very dangerous, un-werren like fight for Nathan at this stage of his career. Really looking forward to this. Gun to my head I pick Kovalev by mid-round stoppage but I have a real sneaking suspicion that Cleverly is the goods and he might just win an impressive UD. MTF
:laugh11: As I've said all along, Cleverly is nothing at world level. No idea at all what anyone saw in him. Pretty much a European level fighter. Nice performance by Kovalev, dished out a non stop beating as I expected.
Kovalev has just moved to the top of my list of guys I'd like to see fight Hopkins. By God, I will see that old fuck get beaten down and forcibly retired. Seriously though, he exposed Cleverly...or at least confirmed what the Bellew fight indicated previously.
Naturally, smegman has been saying for years that FOLKS, the best in the world is Nathan Cleverly and no one is beating him
Lmfao @ the few Brits that claimed Cleverly would be a threat to Ward. Kov is a fuckin beast though. I think he'd stop Froch, and I think pretty highly of Froch nowadays.
No specific names come to mind, but I remember seeing one of two saying that he could be Ward's biggest threat. In the few fights I had seen of Clev, I never saw anything more than a decent fighter. Even comparing him Coking Joe was an insult, it was always apparent he was nowhere near as talented as Calz.
Clev is the new Kevin Mitchell. High expecations on both on the Euro level, then got blown away at the world class level.
The weird thing is, even here on Fightbeat, Cleverly was highly overrated. I thought it was always pretty obvious he wasn't up to much, and was more of a European level fighter than truly world class. So I disagree with salaco that Cleverly was exposed, because it should have been obvious he'd get battered tonight.
Well that and, Kov is a monster. Hasn't been a light heavy with his type of power in awhile. Kov is a bigger threat to Ward than GGG is, simply based on size.
No doubt about it. The 3 main super middles, Ward, Frock, and Kessler are all fucking big, closer to light heavy size. That's why I'm not that interested in seeing Gaybox against them, he's a fairly small middleweight, more Martinez size.
I don't think Stevenson has a chance. His defense is way worse than Kovalevs and Kov would find his chin first.
I don't think he was, by consensus, overrated I think it was just one or two guys trumpeted him a lot
Oh I know not by most of us, but I'm surprised even a handful of people here rated him highly. Including, yes, Hegman ::