Defeat of Pascal shows Kovalev is top dog in division
Tuesday 17 March 2015 11:54, UK
Johnny Nelson watched Sergey Kovalev defend his WBA, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight titles by stopping Jean Pascal and believes the Russian has been underrated...
We know Kovalev can bang, we know he can punch but he actually showed great boxing ability. I was impressed on every level.
To me, Kovalev looked in total control until he took his foot off the gas around the fifth round. As the rounds grew on, he realised the job was probably easier than he thought.
It was easy but I really think it was even easier than he thought it was going to be. It looked like a one-sided beating to me. He just shocked Pascal, who has either gone backwards or Kovalev has been underrated by all of us.
We know Kovalev can bang, we know he can punch but he actually showed great boxing ability. I was impressed on every level.
The difference in terms of Pascal being a super-middleweight who has stepped up and Kovalev being a bona fide light-heavyweight obviously applies to punch power, but Kovalev also out-boxed Pascal completely.
It wasn't just a case of Kovalev bullying someone who has stepped up into his weight division. The size may have made a bit of a difference, but Pascal didn't look that much smaller than him and you've got to look at how he performed.
You can say Kovalev is naturally the bigger guy and that's fine, but he was also naturally better at everything he did.
I would say Kovalev is without doubt the best light-heavyweight in the world right now and I expect we will see that when he boxes Adonis Stevenson, which will presumably be his next move. He totally took Pascal out and did it with ease.
I think Stevenson has to be where Kovalev goes next. It can't be anyone else because after that performance, Stevenson will look bad if he doesn't fight him and who else would get in there with him? In hindsight, you're thinking either Bernard Hopkins was a lot better than we realised or Kovalev went easy on him out of respect.
I don't think the rematch with Hopkins or Cleverly will happen. This guy has improved dramatically each fight and they'll not want it after that performance. What's the point? We've just seen this guy cement his position.
I would say Kovalev is now one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world. I wouldn't say he's the best but he's up there. You can't see anybody getting through him.
I don't see Carl Froch or Gennady Golovkin making the jump up to face him, as some fanciful rumours are suggesting. They aren't silly. Golovkin could step up to super-middleweight and Froch needs to pick and choose the challenges at this stage of career. I can't see him fighting Kovalev.
I can see Kovalev stepping up to cruiserweight. There's Marco Huck and Denis Lebedev. The fights are out there for him at cruiserweight. Heavyweight might be a jump too far but the talent at cruiserweight isn't outstanding and he could do it.
If I'm Kovalev, providing I get past Stevenson, I think my next challenge will be up at cruiserweight.
