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This Saturday's HBO Boxing After Dark show may be headlined by Daniel Geale vs. Darren Barker, but it's the tape delayed fight from Wales that very well may steal the show, as both Nathan Cleverly and Sergey Kovalev make their much anticipated, much hyped HBO debuts. Bad Left Hook will have live fight night coverage of HBO Boxing After Dark Geale vs. Barker in the evening, plus live coverage during the day for Cleverly vs. Kovalev.
Heading into the fight, one of the big talking points is Kovalev's record. It's not just the 21 wins, it's the 19 KOs, many coming inside the first 3 rounds. Here, Kovalev's trainer John David Jackson explains to HBO exactly how his fighter has found the KO:
Trainer John David Jackson on Kovalev's Power and Technique
"The beauty with Sergey is, the first day he gets to camp, I tell him what I'm thinking and he tells me what he's thinking, and he comes up with a plan. From that point on, I don't really mess with him, because as the weeks progress, he's working on it. I might just add small things to his game, because he knows how to fight. We work real well together, because I let him do what he likes to do best."
"He knocks people out because he sets them up a certain way. He has a great boxing style because his foot is always right, and he plants it really well before he throws punches. That doesn't happen because he's lucky."
"He's a really intelligent fighter. He just hasn't had the chance to show the public how intelligent he is, because he's been knocking people out by the third round, and honestly I wouldn't care if he never got the chance to show his true boxing skill. But one day he will. He'll face a guy who can take his punch pretty well, and he'll have to rely on his boxing skills to win the fight."
More Cleverly vs. Kovalev coverage from BLH
What do you think? Will Nathan Cleverly be the man to test Kovalev's technique? And if he is, will Sergey pass the test?
Join Bad Left Hook Saturday to find out.
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