Quote Originally Posted by Chomsky Acolyte View Post
At first, I thought Cleverly had the right idea - pop the jab, keep the hands up high and move backwards. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't stay out of punching range. Even when he was on the defensive, Kovalev could always reach him.

Ideally, Cleverly would have concentrated on jabs and body shots, while staying away and forcing Kovalev to follow him around and expend some energy by missing his power-shots. Kovalev has never been dragged into deep waters and any success Cleverly could have would have been over the second half of the fight. He just wasn't capable though and even the shots he was blocking were having an effect.

I was surprised Cleverly took this fight because Kovalev looked like a monster and, truth be told, it looked like man vs boy in there.
Very true. Just seemed Cleverly was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. Moving out Kovalev does these subtle half steps to close you down and no matter blocking or not Clev was being jarred. In another prediction thread I said 'Kovalev was going to punch holes through this kid', just didn't think it would be right outta the gate like that. Liked that Cleverly stepped to the plate and took him on though. His people and camp just got way ahead of themselves in chatting it up and honestly thought he was just a crude brawler.