***The Official SANCTIONED Sergey Kovalev vs. Igor Mikhalkin RBR Thread 10:00PM EST HBO***

and Barrera goes down in the 12th!
 
Bivol by 12th round knockout! He really looked great - his jab and 1-2 alone won him a majority of the rounds.
 
Total punches landed: 243-75 in favor of Bivol. Power punches: 146-65 and jabs: 97-10.

Bivol was too fast.
 
I can't wait to see Bivol improve and become even better. 27 is still a good age to work on his game.
 
Who wins between Bivol vs Kovalev at the end of this year?
 
Kovalev via KO.
 
Kovalev starting to rearrange Igor's face, now.
 
Kovalev starting to rearrange Igor's face, now.


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Kovalev wrecked him.
 
Well, we know more about Bivol now and his power can carry into the championship rounds. So can Beterbiev's.
 
Bivol is a fucking beast he made the highly skilled and criminally underrated Barrera look like shit. All he had to defend himself were headbutts and low blows. Hurt him a bunch of times and stopped him cold. Bivol did better than Ward did against a more experienced version of Barrera.

Kid can fight. If Ward is smart he'll try to fight him next week before Bivol has a chance to improve and reach his prime in a year or two.
 
Oh man.... this kid is serious business.
 
Well, we know more about Bivol now and his power can carry into the championship rounds. So can Beterbiev's.
Division getting very interesting....

If Ward does return I hope its this division.
 
Kovalev didn't look so special tonight. he has't look special in 4 of his last 5.
 
Bivol is a fucking beast he made the highly skilled and criminally underrated Barrera look like shit. All he had to defend himself were headbutts and low blows. Hurt him a bunch of times and stopped him cold. Bivol did better than Ward did against a more experienced version of Barrera.

Kid can fight. If Ward is smart he'll try to fight him next week before Bivol has a chance to improve and reach his prime in a year or two.

In the same way that Kelly Pavlik did a better job against Edison Miranda. Barrera was shut out by a very rusty version of Ward. There was no reason for people to be assuming Barrera was especially underrated. Bivol beat the shit out of him and looked great, but we shouldn't draw too much from the fact that he did the job better than Ward did (it's the same reason why people thought Chavez was a level above Whitaker).

We should assume that Bivol is a problem for most of the division, though. Personally, I still see Kovalev as the man to beat in the division, but Bivol has a real chance there.
 
In the same way that Kelly Pavlik did a better job against Edison Miranda. Barrera was shut out by a very rusty version of Ward. There was no reason for people to be assuming Barrera was especially underrated. Bivol beat the shit out of him and looked great, but we shouldn't draw too much from the fact that he did the job better than Ward did (it's the same reason why people thought Chavez was a level above Whitaker).

We should assume that Bivol is a problem for most of the division, though. Personally, I still see Kovalev as the man to beat in the division, but Bivol has a real chance there.

Barrera is highly underrated by fans and sports writers and sherdog in general. People said he had no business fighting Joe Smith and would get put to sleep easily and that Valera would knock his head off. The fact is Bivol did much better against him than Ward did but that doesn't mean he's better than Ward or would beat Ward if they fought. If they fight this year Ward probably schools him badly in a dirty ass fight. Next year maybe Bivol pulls off something crazy.

Regardless Bivol deserves full credit for what he did to Barrera and for knocking out a guy Ward took the distance. Taking that kind of power into the 12th round when you've been headbutted half a dozen times, cut badly, low blowed several times, and given a fat hematoma is fucking impressive.

Ward is on a level all his own but Bivol just proved he's on a higher level than most of the rest of the division.
 
Kovalev didn't look so special tonight. he has't look special in 4 of his last 5.
Hes never been special. He hits like a truck and can box a little bit.
 
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