The Kovalev Era

It's time to just come right out with it - we're all living in the era of Sergey Kovalev. Yup, the man is the single most dominant force above 160lbs in all of boxing. Sure, Klitschko is "the man" at heavyweight, but even with his impressive amount of talent, the Ukranian isn't as dominant at heavyweight as Kovalev is right now at light heavyweight.

Klitchko, after all, has never defeated anyone near the status of Bernard Hopkins (sure, Hopkins looked old last fall against Kovalev, but does anyone strongly feel Hopkins could have beaten Kovalev at any time during his Hall of Fame Career?). What's more, Klitschko has never, as far as I know, had a formidable foe avoid him by switching network alliances.

Kovalev has. And that's only added to his fearsome reputation. Oh, there's people now saying that Kovalev is ducking fellow titlist Adonis Stevenson, but let's face it, Stevenson will always be remembered as the guy who avoided Kovalev, and Kovalev will always be known as the guy who Stevenson avoided. That's probably just how it's going to play out, folks. Unless, of course, they actually fight.

Kovalev seems to genuinely want to get into the ring with Stevenson, despite what the naysayers may argue. As for Stevenson, well, that's not so clear. Hopefully the two men will get it on sooner rather than later. The smart money will be on Kovalev at this point - since he's clearly dominated a more impressive list of foes than Stevenson has...and has looked better than Stevenson has recently in doing it.

None of this, of course, is to say Kovalev is a saint. He's shown that he can be downright mean in the ring. What's more, it's said that he's mean outside of it, as well. If his recent t-shirt shot at Stevenson (whether it was intentionally prejudiced or not) is any indication, Kovalev may well end up being one of the more controversial fighters in recent history - and that's saying something.

Yet, regardless of what type of person he or isn't, Kovalev is unquestionably a ring master. Under the tutelage of John David Jackson, he's shown himself to be nearly as skilled a boxer as he is a hitter. Again, that's saying something. Get used to seeing the man around. Chances are, he's going to be on the scene for a good long while.