by David P. Greisman

Sergey Kovalev is a power puncher. But his opponent this Saturday, Blake Caparello, will be the second straight opponent he’s faced whose style is more focused on boxing.

Nevertheless, Kovalev’s trainer, former fighter John David Jackson, doesn’t expect Blake Caparello to be like Cedric Agnew — whose defensiveness gave Kovalev some difficulty until Kovalev scored a stoppage earlier this year.

“I’m not worried about it because Blake’s not that kind of guy,” Jackson said. “Cedric went into a total shell. He just tried to survive. Blake doesn’t seem like that kind of fighter. He tries to be a little bit fancier, slicker: drop his hands and make you miss him. Plus he does have a tendency to want to go right to the guy. That helps us out. I don’t see the same fight with Agnew unless he [Caparello] gets hit right away and goes defensive. Then we got the same thing we did before.”

Even if that happens, Jackson says Kovalev has been told how to slow such an opponent down, including hitting him on the hip and making it look as if the shot was legal. He also sees Caparello as having more pride than Agnew did and wanting to prove he can take Kovalev’s shots.

“I think pride will hurt him,” Jackson said.

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