Sergey Kovalev vs. Cedric Agnew

**Freedom** · 02-13-2014 06:01 PM

Cedric Agnew talks about the upcoming fight on March 29:

**FinitoElDinamita** · 02-14-2014 12:07 AM

This is going to be short and brutal.. agnew doesnt know what he's getting into but I respect his willingness to step up.

**La Cucaracha** · 02-14-2014 02:52 AM

Agnew don't have the power to keep Kovalev at bay

this will be a beat-down

**VG_Addict** · 02-14-2014 09:05 PM

We saw what happened to the last guy who trash talked Kovalev.

**Master** · 02-16-2014 04:30 PM

This looks and sounds like an entertaining fight. Watching Kovalev in the ring is a privileged.

**Spicoli** · 02-17-2014 12:31 AM

Poor dude. From Yusef Mack to Kovalev huh...kinda like riding around in a well built shopping cart and then thinking you can drive it onto a busy nighway when you leave the store. I can't get over how some still dismiss him as "just a puncher". The way he steps with people and varies the right is obscene.

**Freedom** · 03-22-2014 08:39 AM

Kovalev defending WBO Light Heavyweight title vs. young, undefeated challenger Cedric Agnew, live on HBO next Saturday from Atlantic City

by D. Jeremiah Trella

It's the age-old dilemma of any fighter who looks too dominant in his recent performances: "What do you do when no one wants to fight you?" Such is the situation of reigning WBO Light Heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev.

The answer: find the best young contender available who is willing to step into the ring and risk his glossy record in exchange for a shot at your title, big-time TV exposure, and a chance at stardom. That is precisely what Kovalev will have in front of him next Saturday, March 29, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City when he takes on Cedric Agnew (26-0, 13KOs).

After his 4-round destruction of the previously unbeaten Nathan Cleverly in Cardiff, Wales last August to win the WBO title, Sergey Kovalev has set out on a quest to raze the entire Light Heavyweight division to the ground. His main target is the current WBC and lineal (RING Magazine) Light Heavyweight Champion, Adonis Stevenson. Both Stevenson and Kovalev are coming off sensational years where each fought 4 times and scored 4 sensational knockout victories, seemingly on a collision course that will end in an inevitable showdown. Or at least HBO hopes so. They recently featured Kovalev's title defense vs. Ismayl Silakh on the undercard of Stevenson's title defense vs. Tony Bellew in Montreal to build hype for the fight.

But while Kovalev seems ready to fight Stevenson tomorrow, Stevenson (and his promoter Yvon Michel) seem to want to hold off for awhile. Michel has stated that Adonis will fight 3 times this year, and he hopes that the year will culminate in the Kovalev clash. Stevenson will fight Andrzej Fonfara on May 24.

So while Kovalev waits for his chance at the 175lb lineage, he'll continue to make it impossible for Stevenson to ignore him by staying active and staying visible to boxing fans around the world by fighting on HBO against the best challengers in the world who have the guts to face the Russian-born, Florida-based knockout artist.

Enter Cedric Agnew. Little is known about the man even amongst otherwise knowledgeable boxing fans. He doesn't have lots of fights on YouTube. He's only been past 6 rounds 4 times in his 26-fight career. His most notable victory came in his last fight, against two-time World title challenger Yusaf Mack. But one thing we do know about Agnew ***8211; perhaps the most important attribute ***8211; is that he is unafraid of Kovalev, who is widely regarded as, pound-for-pound, arguably the hardest puncher in boxing today.

I was able to dig up a video of Cedric Agnew vs. Alfredo Contreras from December 2012. The fight appeared on the undercard of Donaire vs. Arce, which took place in Houston, Agnew's adopted hometown (Agnew is originally from Chicago, but as Agnew's trainer Bobby Benton is based in Houston, that is where Agnew lives and trains).

Contreras was hardly a world-beater entering the fight with a 13-14-2 record, so it's hard to use the fight as a yardstick vs. an elite operator like Kovalev, but watching the fight, gave me reason to believe that Agnew could well make this fight competitive. Agnew's natural inclination seems to be to fight off of the back foot (which is good since coming forward versus Kovalev is generally ill-advised), and he exhibits good lateral movement without wasting energy. Agnew maintains a high guard and executes that defense very well, making it very hard to land a clean head punch on him.

As recently as June 2013, prior to his bout with Cornelius White, Kovalev's trainer John David Jackson told Ring Magazine that he was trying to make Kovalev "a better body puncher". And to be fair he seems to have succeeded in that effort as Kovalev effectively demonstrated the skills not only against Cornelius White, but particularly in the Cleverly fight in which he won the title, using body punching to create openings to the head which allowed him to make such quick work of Cleverly. Once again, the clash of styles would suggest that a sustained body attack in this fight will be key for Kovalev.

When an Agnew opponent takes a momentary pause between launching a series of punches, few of which land cleanly, Agnew comes back with good combinations of his own, and he isn't afraid to move forward and follow up on his own work when he does land a good clean shot.

However, not only does Kovalev have amazing punching power, but a world-class chin to boot, having only been dropped once in his career, against arguably the most mysteriously dangerous journeyman in all of boxing -- Darnell Boone. No shame in that though -- Boone owns a KO win over Adonis Stevenson and knocked down (and came *very* close to knocking out) the man currently rated as #2 P4P fighter in the world, Andre Ward, albeit early in Ward's career.

So it begs the question of whether Agnew's defensive skills and movement will really matter against a guy like Kovalev who may not need to respect the power in the punches Agnew is throwing back at him. Agnew's best bet is to try and just keep counter-punching and moving and get the fight into the late rounds. Kovalev is a freak of nature relative to other power punchers, because he also possesses extremely high punch output, often throwing close to 100 punches per round.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that no man could sustain that type of pace while still retaining snap on his punches in the late rounds. Problem is, no man has ever gotten to the late rounds vs. Kovalev to find out. Kovalev has never gone beyond 8 rounds in his professional career. If Agnew can take Kovalev's power early, this has the potential to be an exciting, highly-competitive clash that any boxing fan following the red-hot Light Heavyweight scene can't afford to miss.