Sergey Kovalev Wins Easy WBO Vacant 175 Lb. World Title Bout. What’s Next?
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
New York, NY (November 26th, 2017)– Sergey Kovalev using overhand rights to head and left hooks to the body spells doom to any opponent whose style in one tracked, coming forward into Kovalev’s power. Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, entering the ring with a knockout loss in his previous fight, went down three times coming forward into Kovalev’s power. At the professional level, this was a nonsense bout for the vacant World Boxing Organization World Light Heavyweight title. It should not have been sanctioned, and was one of the worst Madison Square Garden main events in New York City of recent memory, ending at 1:26 of the second round on November 25, 2017, when referee Harvey Dock stopped the contest. Kovalev landed 25 of 36 power shots, a 69% power shot landed ratio, and 50 punches out of 113 punches thrown overall. Shabranskyy landed only 16 out of 71, a 23% ratio which spelling early doom against Krusher Kovalev’s pursuit.
Meanwhile, there are 14 undefeated prospects on the world ranked BoxRec top 60. Available opponents Kovalev can still fight include the elusive WBC champion Adonis Stevenson, WBA champion Badou Jack, Cuban Sullivan Barrera who won on the undercard, Eleider Alvarez, IBF champion Artur Beterviev, Dmitry Bivol, southpaw Marcus Browne, NABF and WBO NABO champion Oleksandr Gvosdyk, or the winner of the upcoming December 2017 IBO world title bout between Doudou Ngumbu and Russian southpaw Igor Mikhalkin.
If it is not a titular unification bout of some kind, if Kovalev can make the 175 limit, the opponent, if not one of the above, could be less challenging. Kovalev is best off is he remains busy and active. Despite his two losses to Andre Ward, Kovalev remains a top ten worldwide super fighter, which puts him in an exclusive category of fighters the public wants to see, but whom available opponents mostly prefer to avoid. The key to battling Kovalev, as Ward demonstrated, is to be a highly defensive fighter hard to hit, who can counter, and whose style does not come forward into Kovalev’s power.
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