What a fight…… Yarde is a beast and Kovalev came in as beast tamer. It’s a must see fight. This fight will only help Canelo. Kovalev took a beating and Yarde took a worse beating. Kovalev should take 6 to 8 months off before fighting again. Canelo doesn’t have Yarde type power but some heavyweights probably don’t have Yarde type power but Kovalev should fully recoop before going again.

Watch the fight.

What was noticeable is that Kovalev’s right hand wasn’t doing much in the way of discouraging the young lion but that number 1, that jab of Kovalev’s, won the fight for him. He KO’ed the hungry fighter with a jab. He started with a jab and finished with a jab. I gave every round except the 7th and 8th to Kovalev. You can tell that Yarde was a little nervous in the beginning and that his adrenaline was flowing because every punch was fast and some were coming up short. He wasn’t pacing himself, he wasn’t trying to establish distance or timing. He was just throwing quick punches which were tiring him out. Yarde looked like he was trying to finish the fight in the first round. Kovalev, on the other hand, was establishing his jab and his distance, his experience showed. He wasn’t nervous or throwing all out fast punches, he was letting his opponent do it and run into his punches. Kovalev realized that 12 rounds is a long time while his opponent had only gone 7 rounds previously. Yarde started a marathon with a sprint and couldn’t finish the race while Kovalev started with a reasonable jog and didn’t have to finish, he just went further than Yarde and in boxing, that’s all you have to do. Yarde will get there. He’ll learn to lay off the gas pedal early and save some gas for the finish but for now the rabbit lost once again while the turtle is still the champion.