Review by AllTheBestFights.com: 2017-11-25, good fight between Sergey Kovalev and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy: it gets three stars.The former WBA, IBF and WBO light-Hw champion Sergey Kovalev entered this fight with a professional boxing record of 30-2-1 (26 KOs=87%) and he is ranked as the No.2 light heavyweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Adonis Stevenson) but he comes off two consecutive losses, both with Andre Ward (Kovalev vs Ward I and Ward vs Kovalev II). Before losing to Ward, “Krusher” Kovalev fought twice in 2016 beating Jean Pascal (=Kovalev vs Pascal 2) and Isaac Chilemba (=Kovalev vs Chilemba).
His opponent, Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, has an official record of 19-1-0 (16 KOs=84%) and he entered as the No.17 in the same weight class. He lost to Sullivan Barrera in 2016 (=Shabranskyy vs Barrera) but then he has won over Larry Pryor and Todd Unthank May. Kovalev vs Shabranskyy is valid for the vacant IBA and WBO World light heavyweight titles. Watch the video and rate this fight!
[php]
include(“banner2.php”);
[/php]
Date: 2017-11-25
Where: Madison Square Garden Theater, New York, USA
Division: light heavyweight (175 lbs, 79.4 kg)
Title: vacant IBA and WBO World Light Heavyweight titles
Kovalev’s previous fight: Andre Ward vs Sergey Kovalev 2
Kovalev’s next fight: Sergey Kovalev vs Igor Mikhalkin
[php]
include(“banner.php”);
[/php]
Kovalev vs Shabranskyy full fight video:
(Free embeddable video hosted on Youtube and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
(Alternative free embeddable video hosted on Dailymotion and not uploaded by AllTheBestFights)
Official highlights
Mismatch. Kovalev Vs Sullivan Barrera please. Or Alvarez. Or Beterbiev. Or Stevenson. Or Bivol. Or Gvozdyk. Or Badou Jack…….excellent division.
nothing to say ! atomic Kovalev !
Kovalevs a beast. He won the first ward fight and the BLM racists gave him too much sh*t for the second fight saying he quit and other nonsense. For all we know those cudve been real low blows and his nuts were in hell. He may not even have any more children. Glad he is back and andrea wart f*cked off for good
Good outing by Kovalev, short and sweet. Based on what we saw there, I think John David Jackson was a good asset for him and the split will eventually costs Kovalev. I thought he was defensively disorganized and uncautious. Maybe he simply had no respect for Shabranskyy’s power, but even when he was in the same kind of situation in the past (against Pascal for example – no respect for his power) Kovalev would keep his distance, his composure and avoid taking unecessary risks. I felt that what we saw yesterday was a somewhat sluggish version of Kovalev, as he was probably eager to regain his status in the division and he needed a coup d’éclat. If the few blows that landed on his chin or stomach were those of Stevenson, the story would have been different.
Man he made a statement with that one!
Looked like Kovalev was visualizing Andre’s face on Shabranskyy
Sergey is back with revenge!! He displayed total domination and a nice jabbing work overwhelming his rival with no respect at all for Shabranskyy’s punching power. Anyhow, Shabranskyy did almost the same but exposed himself too much by using a very frontal way of attack which, undoubtedly, facilitated Sergey’s job. Referee’s stopping was quite right.
I agree, the stoppage came pretty timely, just right.
Adonis is talking about unifications, now would be the time if he wants to retire with a bit of dignity. But he must get Alvarez first.
Good performance …. and a good stoppage too…. but shouldn’t he have faced a better ranked opponent in his come-back ? or was he looking for the easy come-back?
He is THE MAN in this division, and to my mind always has been. Ward is only there with the assistance of bent judging. I love the way he puts the power into his right hand, he is a really good example of the utilisation of leg,back and arm muscles in a coordinated motion to achieve his power. It’ s not all about big biceps as Joshua will no doubt find out. Go Kovalev!!!!