By Ian S Palmer
Undefeated Sergey Kovalev of Russia will be putting his WBO Light Heavyweight title on the line against Ismayl Sillakh of Ukraine in Quebec City, Canada on Saturday, November 30. The 12-round contest is on the undercard of the Adonis Stevenson vs Tony Bellew Light Heavyweight Title tilt and can be seen in America on HBO and in Canada on pay-per-view.
The 30-year-old Kovalev is one of the hardest punchers in the sport at the moment and that can be seen in his perfect record of 22-0-1 with 20 Kos. Kovalev won the belt back in August when he stopped former champion Nathan Cleverly of Britain in the fourth round. He’s now won his last 10 fights by knockout and will be looking to extend that streak to 11 come Saturday night.
Kovalev throws a lot of punches and is generally quite active with them. His power is way above average and he’s quite adept at controlling the distance in a fight as well as dictating the pace. Since he’s an aggressive boxer with a lot of power it’s hard for opponents to withstand the pressure and they usually cave in at some point. The last thing anybody wants to do with this guy is to engage in a toe-to-toe brawl.
The 28-year-old Sillakh also has good power of his own and will enter the ring ropes with an impressive record of 21-1 along with 17 Kos. He’s the owner of some excellent boxing skills and could prove to be a troublesome foe for the champion. He moves well and has a superb jab. He’s very smart in the ring and can adapt to any style. Sillakh learned most of his skills as an amateur, where he had an excellent record of 302-16 before turning pro.
However, for all of his boxing skills he’s got a bit of a questionable chin as his only loss came by a second-round stoppage to Denis Grachev in April of last year. He won’t last long against Kovalev if he can’t take a hard shot, so he’s going to have to make sure he stays out of the champion’s power range. He will need to use his mobility and quick hands to get off first and to counter Kovalev whenever he gets the chance.
The challenger is going to have to display some excellent defensive skills to stay out of trouble and he’s also going to have to throw enough punches to win a decision. But since Sillakh also has good power, Kovalev’s chin is also going to be tested and it’ll be interesting to see how he handles getting nailed on the chin by a hard puncher.
Sillakh is going to have to box from the outside and make sure he lands enough shots to make Kovalev respect him and think twice about attacking him at will. The challenger could easily rack up a few of the early rounds on points because of his boxing skills. However, look for Kovalev to eventually do some damage and keep his title by stoppage in the second half of the fight.
