Sergey Kovalev-Nadjib Mohammedi: Post-Report Card

by Cliff Rold

It looked like a standard ‘win a bunch of non-descript fights to move up’ mandatory challenge going in. It played out as less than that in the ring. There was at least some hope the awkward approach of Nadjib Mohammedi could give the fight a couple competitive rounds.

Kovalev has seen awkward before. He obliterated it on Saturday. Sergey Kovalev is no worse than 1A at Light Heavyweight. The politics of keeping belts means sometimes sitting through this sort of thing.

It doesn’t mean anyone has to like it.

It’s all killing time until one of two fights emerges: Andre Ward or Adonis Stevenson 

Let’s go the report card.

Grades

Pre-Fight: Speed – Kovalev B; Mohammedi A-/Post: B; B+

Pre-Fight: Intangibles – Kovalev A+; Mohammedi B+/Post: A+; C+

The jab of Kovalev continues to be a harrowing weapon and impresses every time out. His power is what draws eyes but how he sets it up speaks to how good he is. Mohammedi had no answer for it or his power and the rout was on quickly.

Focusing on the fight itself is a waste of time. What matters with Kovalev is what comes in the future. That should be all about Ward or Stevenson. We’ve seen the prelims that can count at Light Heavyweight already. There aren’t any challengers anyone is dying to see, or who appear completely ready, in the wings.

At 175 lbs., it’s been all about Kovalev and Stevenson for close to two years and is more dramatically so with Bernard Hopkins no longer a factor. The politics keeping these two apart are repugnant and say everything that can be said about what is wrong with the sport. These aren’t guys who draw from dramatically different markets where only hardcore fans really want to see it.

They are both regulars on US TV and the clear ‘most important fight in the division.’ It probably won’t happen next. It might not happen at all.

It makes boxing look like the disorganized farce it too often is.

The saving grace for Kovalev would be a showdown with lineal Super Middleweight kingpin Andre Ward. That’s a hell of a match; pick ‘em both ways. We don’t know yet if the resumed career of Ward is headed from 168 to 175 lbs. If it doesn’t, Ward-Kovalev isn’t coming soon.  If he does move up, we could be there by 2016.

In the meantime, the next rounds of mandatories for Kovalev over the next year or so could be as follows:

• WBA – Andrzej Fonfara (27-3, 16 KO)

• IBF – Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9 KO)

• WBO – Dominic Boesel (19-0, 6 KO)

Of these, both Fonfara and Beterbiev are with the same outfit (PBC) as Stevenson. Would the PBC risk those men with Kovalev when they could be fed (or in the case of Fonfara fed again) to Stevenson? Wouldn’t it be wiser to just do more business with the Kovalev-Stevenson fight at that point? Boesel is completely untested and sounds less interesting than Mohammedi.

Kovalev is bad man. He needs the fights to see if he can be the very baddest in his domain. Right now, there are two that stand way out from the crowd.

Report Card and Staff Picks 2015: 61-15  

Cliff’s Notes…

The HBO broadcast was still worth a look thanks to the efforts of former Light Heavyweight champion Jean Pascal and Cuba’s Yunieski Gonzalez. From here it looked like Gonzalez won a solid seven rounds but a debatable decision takes nothing from the men in the ring. They busted their asses and put on a gutsy show. That doesn’t mean anyone should want to see Kovalev-Pascal II…If Pascal-Gonzalez wasn’t the fight of the night, that nod goes to the main event on BeIn Sports Espanol. What looked like a progress fight at 122 lbs. for former 115 lb. titlist Juan Carlos Sanchez turned into a brutal war. Sanchez was knocked out of the ring, and defeated by decision, against a game Cesar Juarez. The image of both men swinging with abandon, very little in the tank, in the last two rounds was just beautiful violence…The undercard bout between former 105 lb. titlists Moises Fuentes and Oswaldo Novoa wasn’t quite as good but they had a nice little battle too. Fuentes landed a hell of a right to the belly to end it…Haven’t had a chance to see the BJ Flores-Beibut Shumenov fight. Doesn’t sound like anything was missed there. According to punch stats, neither man averaged ten landed power shots per round or threw twenty. That’s not just bad boxing. That’s bad fencing…Brian Viloria still has speed and can still punch. Can he still fight back under fire? He hasn’t seen live bullets since a loss to Juan Francisco Estrada. If either that rematch, or a showdown with Roman Gonzalez, is next we will soon know how much the former Olympian really has left. 

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com