LAS VEGAS ? This fight is what boxing dreams are made of, unbeaten vs. unbeaten, champion vs. champion, boxer vs. slugger, two men in their primes at the top of their chosen professions squaring off for supremacy in one of the sport?s original eight divisions.
Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, 30-0 vs. 30-0-1, is a battle for the history books.
We can almost forget the ridiculous route it took to get here, the pair of unnecessary one-sided tuneup fights each man took before agreeing to fight each other, necessary only to fill their promoters? pocketbooks.
It has the makings of a classic, a memorable fight that easily could be repeated two or three times. Ward, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, hasn?t been beaten since he was 12 years old. Kovalev, the Russian who nearly walked away from boxing as an amateur, has an 83.9 percent knockout rate as a pro.
It?s as good as it gets.
Ward seemed destined for greatness the minute he turned pro. Kovalev, on the other hand, was an unknown, so lightly regarded that he was passed over by several powerful promoters before winding up with Main Events and Kathy Duva.
View gallery . Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev is a battle of two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. (AP)
The fight presents, on the surface, some interesting contrasts, but Ward is not simply the light-hitting boxer many see him as, nor is Kovalev the wide-eyed slugger his record would suggest.
Kovalev, after all, won every round in his bout against the legendary Bernard Hopkins by outboxing him. Even though Hopkins was just two months shy of his 50th birthday at the time they fought in 2014 that was still a massive accomplishment.
No one outboxes Hopkins, but Kovalev managed to do it. Abel Sanchez, the 2015 Trainer of the Year who briefly trained Kovalev, believes Kovalev will find a way to get past Ward.
Kovalev is the kind of fighter, Sanchez said, who won?t accept losing.
?I believe Kovalev is a better fighter, not necessarily a better boxer or technician,? Sanchez said. ?He?s just a meaner, willing-to-do-whatever-it-takes-to-win fighter, so I think he will win a lackluster decision.
?I think the onus is on Ward to make the fight and Kovalev will fight like he did against Hopkins.?
Kovalev knocked Hopkins down in the first and that turned the ordinarily cautious Hopkins into an even more safety-first fighter. Ward, though, may not follow the Hopkins script of staying at a distance and peppering Kovalev with a jab.
Ward only has 15 knockouts in his 30 consecutive professional wins, which isn?t anything to get excited about. But he?s a physical fighter and hits harder than he?s given credit for.
Ward?s opponents regularly come out of bouts against him much worse for wear and they?re often rarely the same fighters after facing him. He works the body with the kind of ferocity that shortens careers.
In Ward?s 2010 win over Allan Green in the ?Super Six? super middleweight tournament, which he won, Ward fought most of the bout in the hard-hitting Green?s face. There was little distance between them as Ward pummeled Green on the inside.
Green entered the bout with a 29-1 mark and 20 knockouts as well as a reputation as a fearsome puncher. He scored 11 of his 20 knockouts in two rounds or less before facing Ward.
But Ward not only neutralized Green?s power, he battered Green badly while winning all 12 rounds. Green wasn?t the same after that, going 3-3 in six fights and getting knocked out twice before retiring.
So Ward isn?t some pretty boy who can be bullied, but in Kovalev, he?ll be facing a guy with knockout power in either hand.
But John David Jackson, the former world champion who works Kovalev?s corner, said Kovalev isn?t preoccupied by anything other than winning. He?s not gunning for a knockout just to make a point, Jackson said.
?He doesn?t need to worry about the knockout,? Jackson said. ?If the knockout comes, it comes, but if it doesn?t, we are prepared to go 12 hard rounds to get the victory by decision.?
One of the interesting sidelights to note is the relationship between the fighters and their trainers. Ward began working with Virgil Hunter as an amateur, and Hunter has been with him his entire career.
They have a sixth sense and work beautifully together.
View gallery . Ward is a once-in-a-generation kind of athlete. (AP)
?When you look at him or when you really study him, he?s a well-schooled fighter,? Jackson said of Ward. ?He listens to everything Virgil preaches and he definitely absorbs it. The one beautiful thing I?ve noticed from that is he trusts Virgil. When you trust your trainer, that speaks volumes for you. You listen to everything he tells you to do, so any game plan that Virgil advises, he?s going to follow.?
But Kovalev, who has been through a series of trainers, including Don Turner and Sanchez before Jackson, is more independent. He often makes his own adjustments in the ring, based on what he sees, and doesn?t necessarily look to his corner to devise the plan or suggest subtle changes.
?Sergey knows what he wants to do and his plan is already set,? Jackson conceded. ?I just work off what he wants to do. In the ring, he knows what he wants to do, as all fighters should know what they want to do. For me, it could be hard sometimes when his mindset is set on one thing. But I make it a little bit easier because I allow him to do what he wants and work off what he wants to do and that makes him a better fighter.?
It?s worked throughout his career, which is why Kovalev is 30-0-1 and on the verge of becoming widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
It?s an intriguing fight on many levels, and a case could easily be made for both men.
But Ward is that once-in-a-generation kind of athlete, and this is the kind of bout in which he?ll shine. He?ll find a way to raise his game against the best man he?s fought.
I?ll guess it?s going to be 116-112 for Ward, though I wouldn?t be surprised if Ward hits Kovalev so much that Kovalev gets cut or his eyes swell and the fight is stopped.
Either way, Andre Ward wins it and puts his name into the history books as one of the all-time greats.
