Present Day Kovalev vs Prime Joe Calzaghe, Prime Roy Jones

[hulkmaniac]

How would these fights play out? I see Calzaghe outboxing him until he gets caught near the end of 12 rounds. I believe Jones would stop Kovalev.

[polecateddy]

I would imagine both would have boxed him silly. Late stoppages. Dariusz Michalczewski would have administered a good old fashioned beat-down too!

[crusader]

At this point I'm not sure just how good Kovalev is, but he'd probably have to be very good to beat either of them.

[diddy]

Jones would beat him easily. Not even close. Calzaghe probably as well. Michalczewski? Yeah no. He beat nobody memorable.

[Woldemar]

I'm big fan to
Sergey.

Jones RTD 8 Kovalev

Calzaghe UD 12 Kovalev

Kovalev for me better puncher than Tiozzo.

Kovalev TKO 7 Dariucz

[polecateddy]

Jones would beat him easily. Not even close. Calzaghe probably as well. Michalczewski? Yeah no. He beat nobody memorable.

Nobody memorable. Well Cleverley aside, who's world class ability is still a bit of an unknown, neither has Kov. Let's not forget Michalczewski was also the WBO cruiser champ. Toe to toe he wouldn't be found wanting I suspect. Kov would fight his favourite type of fight.

[Woldemar]

He never been a cruiser champ.

Dariusz was a WBO light heavy champ

[dominik]

RJJ easily beats kovalev. I think calzaghe will probably be knocked down once or so but win on points by a wide margin.

[Woldemar]

If Sergey beat Hopkins many peoples will change opinion about him

[polecateddy]

He never been a cruiser champ.

Dariusz was a WBO light heavy champ

He was WBO cruiserweight champ and made one defence before dropping a division and decisioning Nicky Piper conqueror, Barber. Plank!

[Woldemar]

Yes i found he was a WBO cruiser champ

But fighting at this title only one time against Giovannini

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer

[polecateddy]

Yes i found he was a WBO cruiser champ

But fighting at this title only one time against Giovannini

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer

Still impressive though. And Mich would have been a better fight than Jones or Calzaghe. He loved in-fighting.

[Woldemar]

Tiozzo beat him easily,Calzaghe and RJJ also beat him as well.

[polecateddy]

Tiozzo beat him easily,Calzaghe and RJJ also beat him as well.

People put too much significance on fights at the end of people's careers. Mich hadn't fought for nearly two years and was basically semi-retired when he lost to Tiozzo. Likewise neither the Hopkins or Jones fights for Calzaghe weren't truly representative of his peak. His hands were shot and he couldn't even spar. Still beat them though! It also shouldn't be overlooked that Joe was a super-middle and not a light-heavy.

[Perseus]

Tiozzo beat him easily,Calzaghe and RJJ also beat him as well.

People put too much significance on fights at the end of people's careers. Mich hadn't fought for nearly two years and was basically semi-retired when he lost to Tiozzo. Likewise neither the Hopkins or Jones fights for Calzaghe weren't truly representative of his peak. His hands were shot and he couldn't even spar. Still beat them though! It also shouldn't be overlooked that Joe was a super-middle and not a light-heavy.

The shot hands story is total bullshit. Sure he had hand issues as do many, many boxers but you act like he had lost the use of them.
Plus Calzaghe was miles closer to his peak than the shadow of Roy Jones jr that he faced and the well past 40 version of Hopkins.
Interesting that you point out Joe was a super-middle but manage to miss the fact that Hopkins is a just a blown up middleweight, significantly older and further past his peak than Calzaghe.

[polecateddy]

Tiozzo beat him easily,Calzaghe and RJJ also beat him as well.

People put too much significance on fights at the end of people's careers. Mich hadn't fought for nearly two years and was basically semi-retired when he lost to Tiozzo. Likewise neither the Hopkins or Jones fights for Calzaghe weren't truly representative of his peak. His hands were shot and he couldn't even spar. Still beat them though! It also shouldn't be overlooked that Joe was a super-middle and not a light-heavy.

The shot hands story is total bullshit and Calzaghe was miles closer to his peak than the shadow of Roy Jones jr that he faced and the well past 40 version of Hopkins.
Interesting that you point out Joe was a super-middle but manage to miss the fact that Hopkins is a just a blown up middleweight, significantly older and further past his peak than Calzaghe.

The hands stuff is hardly bullshit. They are still massively swollen, and he can't close his left (power) hand.

[Perseus]

He can't close his left hand?
Massively swollen?

Completely false, nice try though.

This is the weigh-in for the Hopkins fight.

[polecateddy]

He can't close his left hand?
Massively swollen?

Completely false, nice try though.

This is the weigh-in for the Hopkins fight.

Now you plonker! I also believe it's true his hand was in a bad way then too. He really didn't spar at the end.

[Perseus]

He can't close his left hand?
Massively swollen?

Completely false, nice try though.

This is the weigh-in for the Hopkins fight.

Now you plonker! I also believe it's true his hand was in a bad way then too. He really didn't spar at the end.

Now?
Who cares about now?
Retired boxer with bad hands is hardly unique anyway.

You originally said his hands were shot and posted it as absolute fact now you're backing off to "I believe" and talking about now?

His hands were clearly ok going into that fight.

[danconnollyeire]

He can't close his left hand?
Massively swollen?

Completely false, nice try though.

This is the weigh-in for the Hopkins fight.

Now you plonker! I also believe it's true his hand was in a bad way then too. He really didn't spar at the end.

Now?
Who cares about now?
Retired boxer with bad hands is hardly unique anyway.

You originally said his hands were shot and posted it as absolute fact now you're backing off to "I believe" and talking about now?

His hands were clearly ok going into that fight.

Haha you're subjective aint ya

[polecateddy]

He changed his whole approach and moderated his power because his hands were so poor. You are clearly a moron!

[Perseus]

He changed his whole approach and moderated his power because his hands were so poor. You are clearly a moron!

Ah.
Resorting to name calling when you have no way to dispute anything I said.

So he changed his approach good for him.
As Hopkins grew older and could no longer fight all twelve rounds he had to fight at a slower pace, plus the move up two divisions to face bigger men.
He changed his approach too.
Once again you point out something for your boxer while disregarding that the other guy did something similar.

Jones changed his approach after the second Tarver but that's a little different. He stopped trying to win fights that he can't dominate every step of the way.

[diddy]

Jones would beat him easily. Not even close. Calzaghe probably as well. Michalczewski? Yeah no. He beat nobody memorable.

Nobody memorable. Well Cleverley aside, who's world class ability is still a bit of an unknown, neither has Kov. Let's not forget Michalczewski was also the WBO cruiser champ. Toe to toe he wouldn't be found wanting I suspect. Kov would fight his favourite type of fight.

Kovalev is still a baby.

Michalzewski fought a career of bums.

[Teddy's Toupee]

I don't know, and neither does anyone else, whether Kovalev could beat those two, or visa versa. But what I do know is that Sergey looks uncannily like a young Russ Abbot.

[Impractical Poster]

Like Ted said, who knows? Kovalev is clearly a top level guy in the division. Whether he is of the caliber of those mentioned is to be determined.