You got me hooked up on this feeling You got me hanging from the ceiling You got me up so high I?m barely breathing So don?t let me Don?t let me Don?t let me Don?t let me Go?
?Kehlani, Gangsta
The star of the show never needs an introduction. Suspended in the air like a novel that doesn?t even know of the suspense, the unknown has a friend named aura that nobody, nobody, nobody knows.
Not even peeping Tom?s.
It surrounded Dmitry Bivol like a looming dark cloud inside of Madison Square Garden in November 2017, just before Vyacheslav Shabranskyy was struck by lightning amid thunder from Sullivan Barrera. And so it is the rain of Sergey Kovalev will fall again?because he is not the storm.
*** *** ***
I don?t care about Deontay Wilder V Luiz Ortiz. The old King Kong movie may be younger than Ortiz, who will be yanked off the Empire State Building by the Bomb Squad inside of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on 3/3. I?m sorry, who is Jermall Charlo fighting? Oh. It?s free popcorn and soda at the concession stand for adult kids that want to see Black Panther.
Definitely entertaining; but it?s a cheap, superficial thrill for endorphin fiends who leave money on the table. This card is more like theater on Broadway in a suit. That magical first date you know will lead to another: Sergey Kovalev V Dmitry Bivol.
Wait?
I just got an e-mail. It?s Colin from Gotham grey skies in Scotland?
He just typed up a breakdown of Sergey Kovalev V Igor Mikhalkin and Dmitry Bivol V Sullivan Barrera. Always researched and vetted in his scouting, The Colinizer nailed it? before slamming down the shot glass.
???
Kovalev V Mikhalkin: ☆☆
With a world title back in his possession it looks like Kovalev is being served up another soft ball for his first defence of the WBO 175lb title he won while turning Vyacheslav Shabranskyy into a yo-yo in November.
Igor Mikhalkin will be in too deep next month and the 22 bouts he has had so far won?t have served as good enough preparation for this assignment. Without a KO victory since 2015 against much inferior opposition, Mikhalkin looks primed to be stopped early as Kovalev goes about getting back his ?Krusher? mojo.
Bivol V Barrera: ☆☆☆☆
This is a good fight. I am a fan of Sullivan Barrera and have been impressed with how he has re-grouped since his 2016 defeat to Andre Ward. In saying that, by taking on Bivol I think the Cuban is in for a rough night.
Bivol, despite only having had 12 pro fights so far, looks like a top quality operator. Economical with his output and with frightening power, I can see Barrera?s aggressive style playing straight into his hands.
An entertaining fight while it lasts ? Barrera won?t die wondering ? but it will be the younger Russian who closes the show with an 8th round KO after having had his own chin checked a few times by Barrera.
Colin Morrison _________
During referee instructions in the middle of the ring, it was as if a possesive Kovalev screamed: ?This is mine!? and Shabranskyy believed him. Mikhalkin is fucked too. If Shabranskyy was the pigeon, then he?ll be the statue being rudely decorated inside of Madison Square Garden on 3/3 in front of HBO cameras. He needs a Gangsta? who?ll fight him better? than all the other do?
He can beat these kind of Russians. Bivol is a new crime boss.
There was a myth of social order in the court with Kovalev, where his supremacy seemed authoritarian beyond challenge. Two gavel poundings won?t make Bivol abandon thoughts of Andre Ward?s revolt. He?ll eventually get a super tough Sullivan Barrera singing to himself: ?I?m fucked up/ I?m black n blue/I?m built for?all the abuse?. But his corner won?t think so, bringing the record to a screeching halt around the 8th round indeed.
As if a dark, Russian pop remake with cinematic delivery that steals a scene like a thief in the night, you will know a star when you see one. It?s a secret? that nobody, nobody, nobody knows.
Yet.
