Olympic Gold Medalist and retired undefeated former pound for pound king Andre Ward, was on the ESPN show “Max on Boxing” to talk about the Tyson Fury vs. Otto Wallin heavyweight fight that took place last weekend and also gave his take on the upcoming November 2nd light heavyweight championship between Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and WBO champion Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev.
After Ward gave his thoughts on Fury-Wallin, Max Kellerman had to get his opinion on the upcoming bout between Canelo and Ward’s former rival Kovalev.
Canelo who will be moving up another weight division to challenge for Kovalev’s WBO light heavyweight title, will be at a huge size disadvantage but Ward is confident Canelo can pull it off.
“There is a lot of variables, but right now I am leaning toward Canelo Alvarez,” said Ward.
Ward faced Kovalev twice. In the first fight it was close and Ward overcame an early knockdown to win on points. In the rematch Ward turned the tide on the hard hitting Russian and stopped him in the 8th round.
Part of the reason Ward sees Canelo winning is due to the fact that Kovalev is not the same monster. A lot of pundits believe ever since he loss to Ward, the Russian puncher has never been the same, and Ward agrees as he feels his former rival no longer has that killer instinct.
“Sergey Kovalev is no longer the Krusher. He is simply just Sergey Kovalev and Sergey Kovalev by himself is a formidable guy, still dangerous, still tough, but it’s only for the first half of the fight.
“If Canelo Alvarez doesn’t go overboard and try to put on some enormous amount of weight and mass I think he is going to wear Kovalev down. I think everyone knows that Kovalev cannot take it to the body nor does he know how to defend himself once somebody comes inside. I can see Canelo stopping Kovalev late somewhere around the 11th and 12th round because listen, Sergey Kovalev is in his mid-thirties and this is a cash out fight for him and I’m sure he is going to try to win, but he’s just not the Krusher anymore, its as simple as that.
“He’s (Kovalev) had tough fights, tough lifestyle outside the ring, I’m leaning toward Canelo for a late round stoppage.”
After giving his assessment of the Canelo-Kovalev bout, Max Kellerman made Ward smile by asking him about a possible Canelo vs. Ward super-fight. Ward who has been retired for 3 years, was coy about the match but judging by his grin it would be a difficult proposition to turn down if it ever came to the table.
