By Nick Bellafatto
Undefeated light heavyweight sensation Sergey “The Krusher” Kovalev (24-0-1, 22 KO’s) of Fort Lauderdale, Florida would this past Saturday night garner a seventh round stoppage over Chi Town’s little known tentative challenger Cedric Agnew (26-1, 13 KO’s). This before an HBO viewing audience to include those willing to pay the price of admission into Atlantic City, New Jersey’s Boardwalk Hall.
In the process, the Russian born fighter would not only retain his coveted WBO title to inflict Agnew’s first loss, but he would confirm a few important things. Number 1 is that Sergey is fond of following up the right hand with a jab, leaving his feet on one occasion superman style to legitimately drop his counterpart in the sixth, to with the same punch, only connected to the liver, finish matters at 58 seconds of round 7.
Number 2 is that Kovalev is heavy handed, landing with great effect if not knocking the stuffing out of those who leave openings to fill. Third and finally is that “The Krusher” in not getting early on to an unknown quantity with decent defense, would perhaps in a future bout prove vulnerable to a totally savvy defensive fighter who could mount an accurate, effective offense.
Enter pound-for-pound fighter Andre Ward who no doubt bearing witness is thinking along those lines while contemplating a hefty payday down the road. And with Ring Magazine light heavy champ Adonis Stevenson at the very least putting off Kovalev if not outright avoiding the Russian by switching networks, a Ward-Kovalev match up could be in the offing should Andre handle business against what is likely to be the winner of a Chavez-Golovkin encounter.
Dulorme gets by a less than busy Mayfield in co-main event
Once beaten Puerto Rican showcase talent Thomas Dulorme (21-1, 14 KO’s) would after ten rounds in the co-main event exit the ring the new 140 pound NABF champion, this at the expense of San Francisco, California’s formerly undefeated Karim Mayfield (18-1-1, 11 KO’s).
With the final score totals rendered to read 98-92, 97-94, and 96-93 all in favor of Dulorme, the circumstances of the fight couldn’t have been more in favor of Mayfield. That’s to say Karim as the shorter opponent would find the rangier Dulorme falling in with his punches, to present numerous opportunities to land hard counters on which some occasions Mayfield did.
Add to this the fact that the Puerto Rican in further failing to maintain range or use the ring to his advantage would allow Karim to close the gap where perhaps once inside Mayfield would flourish, and the native of San Francisco couldn’t ask for anything more.
That said, Mayfield to the disgruntlement of his support cast to include trainer Virgil Hunter would fail to capitalize time and again by smothering himself to the point he couldn’t get punches off at the most opportune of moments.
This circumstance will in victory allow Dulorme, shabby effort in hand under new trainer Robert Garcia, to move on to better things while Mayfield under the management of one incarcerated Marlon Sullivan no doubt needs to rethink his destination, as well as his direction getting there.
