Pictured: Sergey Kovalev


TTR Monthly Honors: November 2017


Fighter of the Month: Sergey Kovalev

Coming back from two disputed losses, Kovalev badly needed a win to reestablish himself as a light heavyweight force and to let the fans know that he hadn't been negatively affected by the Ward fights. Altough it wasn't expected that the WBO #10 ranked Vyacheslav Shabranskyy was going to be able to expose these flaws in Kovalev should they be present, Kovalev still deserves credit for being able to dispense of Shabranskyy so quickly and efficiently. He dropped Shabranskyy twice in the first round with the second knockdown looking particularly forceful. Surprisingly Shabranskyy was able to recover and make it into the second frame, but Kovalev soon went right back on the attack and drove him to the canvas a third time. After another assault had Shabranskyy on wobbly legs, the referee appropriately stopped the fight. Shabranskyy was a heavy underdogbut the manner in which Kovalev handled him was impressive enough to earn Kovalev our Fighter of the Month Honors for the month of November.


Fight of the Month: Sullivan Barrera W10 Felix Valera

Barrera had established himself as a noteworthy contender following a lopsided loss to Andre Ward. He had shown he wasn't a merely stepping stone by scoring big wins over Shabranskyy, Paul Parker and Joe Smith Jr. Valera, a former WBA interim world champ with wins over Stas Kashtanov and Gusmyr Perdomo, had only lost once as a professional, dropping a decision to hard-punching Dmitry Bivol. Early on in their bout, Valera showed he might just be a more formidable opponent than the previous three had been for Barrera. Valera used his skills to trouble Barrera. Both fighters were knocked down in the 1st round, setting the tone for what would be a competitive bout throughout. Valera ultimately wound up losing three points for low blows, Barrera was deducted one point, but in spite of all the point deductions, this never felt like a bitter foul-filled fight as you might think. It was just a tough, gritty contest between two contenders, each trying to further solidify his place in the light heavyweight division, and it's earned our honors as Fight of the Month for November!


KO of the Month: Zolani Tete KO 1 Siboniso Gonya

This went down as the quickest KO in the history of World Title bouts. It'll take me longer to type this out than it took Tete to knock out Gonya. The two fighters came out, and when Gonya launched out with his left, Tete countered with a picture perfect right hook that violently snapped Gonya's head to the side and dropped him hard. The referee counted briefly, but quickly seeing that Gonya was unconscious and in need of medical attention, waived the count and called a halt to the fight. Officially it was recorded as a 11 second KO win for Tete, but actually the KO shot landed about 5 seconds into the bout, and the extra 6 seconds transpired as the referee decided whether to count or stop the fight. As spectacular and violent a KO as you can see, and for the month of November there could be absolutely no debate. This was KO of the Month!