So with both Kovalev and Ward having there tune up fights before they both have there super fight ,what can we take from there preparation so far . 

A few weeks ago we had Kovalev vs Chilemba in Russia ,now anyone who has seen Chilemba fight before knows he’s a very awkward customer and near impossible to look good against also he has never been stopped inside the 12 rounds ,so for a tune up for Ward this was a great match up. Now let’s start with the positives from this fight. The Krusher started slow but more than dominated the fight and adapted very well to Chilemba tieing him up . Having Chilemba on the canvas in the seventh and God only knows how he never went down in the eighth Kovalev showed his power is true and that he will find a way to land in quite an entertaining bout . Now on to some negative points from this fight. I gave Chilemba a couple of the earlier rounds as he was landing the cleaner shots and really keeping Kovalev  at bay ,either using his jab well To keep Kovalev  away or tieing him up before he could get in range to land his big power shots , although Kovalev figured out Chilemba I get the feeling Ward will cause him all sorts of problems in this same way, Ward is a master at spoiling a different class from Chilemba. There where other worrying signs for Kovalev as he seemed to gas from the ninth onward ,now his camp had said he had a virus and to many media commitments before hand but this is still a worry, does he have the engine for Ward ? ……I’m not so sure

More recently Andre Ward took his tune up against Alexander Brand , now there is no way of buttering this up, this was a shocking fight …utter dross ,I’m sitting on my honeymoon trying to watch it and gave up ,really that bad. Now when you fight much lesser openents there is always the chance they can drag you down to there level and we almost had a clash of heads which could have put the super fight with Kovalev  fight in turmoil,also from the little I had seen from Brand he throws from awkward angles so Ward played it cautious, far to cautious if you ask me. Ward did have a shut out which shows how dominant he was and toward the end of the fight he did look to up it for the KO but just didn’t have the power. What I would say is Brand landed a couple of hooks,the kinda punch if Kovalev  catches him with he will be out but if I’m totally honest I wouldn’t judge Ward skill and ability on any part of this fight .

So what can we take from these two fights ? Well really not to much if your looking to see who edges the fight in November , no matter what we seen from Ward against Brand we all know he’s a top class elite boxer but as far as preparations go for November it is 1-0 Kovalev, The Krusher took a better oponent better suited to preparing him for Ward but really this one is still to close to call and I’m still backing Ward at this point but I’m gonna be keeping a close eye on both training camps,an old cliché but  I honestly think this fight could boil down to who is best prepared going into the ring   .

Dino @DJayBoxingBlog