Welcome to another installment of UndercarDVR, where we review what you need to see from this week in combat sports. We go fight by fight to see whether it needs to be watched, deleted, or put in fast forward.
Sergey Kovalev stepped into the ring in Russia to defend his trio of light heavyweight straps against the game Issac Chilemba in a HBO Mondayfight worth a damn. More questions were surrounding the method than the result, but could Chilemba trouble Kovalev and poke some holes in his game before the light heavyweight kingpin gets into the ring with a premier technician like Andre Ward?
Get your remotes ready!
Sergey Kovalev defeated Isaac Chilemba by unanimous decision in a light heavyweight bout to retain the WBA Super, IBF, and WBO World Light Heavyweight Championships.
- Kovalev took quite the scare here against Chilemba in a rather lackluster performance considering the dominance of Krusher lately. Chilemba negated the power puncher early by wisely picking his shots as Kovalev looked to flurry. However, in the middle of the fight, Kovalev was able to clip Chilemba and put him down to turn the tide as he became more aggressive and looked for the finish in the second half of the fight. We know Kovalev is slated for Andre Ward next and that could be trouble for him if S.O.G. is able to befuddle him with a similar gameplan that minimizes engaging. Chilema likely earned a little stock here, but he is currently at his ceiling and shows no intention of breaking through.
- This is must-watch because of the trouble Kovalev had and how we can apply that to his next fight when he faces an even more capable defensive and strategist. A few knockdowns here and there made it worthwhile to see Kovalev solve the puzzle. As we stated in predictions, this is more of an appetizer for the Ward fight and this should definitely give viewers something to chew on when pondering the outcome of that fight. Verdict: Watch.
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