People say Cleverly would have won if he had boxed against Kovalev.

TBH, I don't think it would have made much of a difference, since Kovalev is so good at cutting off the ring.

What people don't realize is that Cleverly WAS boxing him in the early parts of Round 1, working behind the jab. It's just that Kovalev, for the most part, was winning then too. The punch stats in Round 1 showed that Kovalev was outlanding Cleverly