Nothing could save Jean Pascal. Freddie Roach couldn't save him. His anger couldn't save him. And in the end, the best thing he had going for him, his fighting heart, only made things worse.
Like a medieval executioner, unified light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev went about his task in a businesslike fashion, secure in the knowledge that the outcome was practically preordained. Perhaps, as Kovalev claimed, he used a dull ax to prolong the agony. The malice was genuine enough.
The undefeated Kovalev has punched his way into the hearts of boxing fans by stopping 26 of his 30 pro opponents with ruthless efficiency, but that's only part of his appeal. His casual savagery, served up with a side order of malicious glee, has struck a cord with those who enjoy a badass attitude almost as much as a punch in the face.
It is a measure of Kovalev's growing stature that what amounted to a stay-busy fight was broadcast by HBO. The first time Kovalev stopped Pascal, in March 2015, was definitive enough, the rematch a redundancy we could have done without.
Andre Ward and light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson -- the guys we all really want to see the "Krusher" fight -- were among the gathering of 9,866 at Montreal's Bell Centre last Saturday. That put the three best light heavyweights in the world in the same building at the same time, but didn't seem to bring them any closer to showdown.
Stevenson's hold-me-back pantomime during the postfight interviews and Kovalev's pitiless retorts were priceless social media fodder, but did little to bridge the political divide between them.
Ward's promise to fight Kovalev sounded as nebulous as ever, especially when he revealed he didn't even have the paperwork for his next tuneup yet. Exactly how many tuneups Ward needs before having his first competitive fight in years is unclear, but a Kovalev match appears many months away.
In order to fill the void until these elusive matches materialize (if indeed they do), let's amuse ourselves with a fresh round of that old favorite, Current Fighter versus the All-Time Greats.
We've all trod this pugilistic primrose path before, but Kovalev versus the 10 greatest light heavyweights is fertile ground, even though the harvest is bound to be premature. There's no way of knowing where Kovalev will be a few years from now.
The list of opponents is selected from a lengthy piece titled "The 20 Greatest Light Heavyweights of All-Time," which was published in September 2002 edition of "The Ring." We've rearranged the rankings slightly for our purposes, but kept the spirit of the original article pretty much intact.
The bar has been set high for the "Krusher," as it should for a man who has swatted down his rivals with such contemptuous ease. All of his fantasy opponents are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame and will be competing as they did in their primes.
This sort of speculation, more an educated guess than anything, is an inexact science at best. The only fair way to evaluate a fighter is to wait until his career is over, but with Kovalev in play, the final judgment will have to wait.
It's a small sacrifice to make for a much-needed dose of instant gratification, something we probably won't get from the current light heavyweight elite any time soon.
Ezzard Charles
Charles turned pro in 1940 and fought until 1959, but the first nine years, arguably his best years, were fought at middleweight and light heavyweight. "The Cincinnati Cobra" made his money when he moved up to heavyweight and won the title, but made his bones at light heavy.
"Charles was a destroyer at 175 who cleaned out the deepest, most talented light heavyweight division ever," said Charles' biographer, William Dettloff. "There's no one on Kovalev's record who approximates in any way Archie Moore, Jimmy Bivins, Joey Maxim and Lloyd Marshall. In Charles he would be facing a faster, more skilled, tough-as-steel fighter with far more experience. Kovalev would be fortunate to make it to the final bell."
There's no credible way to challenge Dettloff's analysis -- Charles by wide unanimous decision.
Archie Moore
Nobody knows for sure how many knockouts Moore scored during his celebrated 27-year career. It's like his date of birth, open for debate. The KO tally ranges from 129 to 154, but there's one thing upon which all sources agree: Moore scored more knockouts that any other boxer in history.
It wasn't his knockout punch alone that allowed Moore to persevere long enough to win the light heavyweight championship in 1952 at age 37 and to hold it for more than nine years. The "Old Mongoose" was as crafty as they come and a master at setting traps, which once sprung typically left his adversary wondering what hit him.
He was still at it in his late 30s or early 40s (depending on what source you believe), dropping Rocky Marciano in a failed bid to win boxing's greatest prize and fighting on for another eight years with uncanny success.
Against Moore's cross-armed defense, Kovalev would be like the Big Bad Wolf trying to blow down the three little pigs' brick house. The harder he tried, the close he would come to disaster. Then, when the right moment came, he would pull the trigger and Kovalev would come tumbling down.
Bob Foster
There was something scary about Foster's punching power -- the way his left jab came at opponents like an angry rattlesnake, the sound his punches made when they connected with flesh and bone. And who could ever forget the left hooks that almost decapitated Dick Tiger and Mike Quarry.
Throughout the late 1960s and early '70s, Foster was unbeatable at light heavyweight. His heavyweight forays were another story, but at 175 he was deadly, racking up 14 successful defenses all told.
Kovalev's style is not unlike Foster's. They are both standup boxers who work behind the jab. Foster's hands were quicker than Kovalev's and had more snap on his punches. On the other hand, he wasn't that difficult to hit, and with the possible exception of Frankie DePaula, the "Krusher" probably punches harder than the rest of Foster's challengers.
There would be some fierce exchanges with both men having their moments in a punishing fight. The difference would come down to the simple fact that Foster's hands are a tad faster and his punches straighter.
It would look like anybody's fight going into the championship rounds, when Kovalev would begin to feel the punches more and more and soon succumb to the accumulative effect of Foster's heavy hands.
Michael Spinks
For the purposes of this exercise, we need to look beyond Spinks' 90-second loss to Mike Tyson and the fact that he was the first light heavyweight champ to win the heavyweight title. It's Spinks' accomplishments at 175 pounds that are pertinent here.
From his pro debut in 1977 until 1985, when he relinquished the light heavyweight title to compete as a heavyweight, Spinks went undefeated in 27 bouts, including 10 title defenses. The division's talent pool was deep at the time, and Spinks' list of victims included Dwight Muhammad Qawi, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and Marvin Johnson.
Despite the knockout power in his right hand, Spinks was far from one-dimensional. He was also a savvy boxer with a tight defense and an uncanny sense of distance, all of which made him the most dominant force at 175 pounds since Foster.
Kovalev probably hits harder than anyone else Spinks fought until he moved up to heavyweight, but that wouldn't be enough. Spinks had a knack for shutting down big punchers, and would overcome a few dicey moments to win a decision.
Tommy Loughran
They called Loughran the "Phantom of Philly," a tribute to the now-you-see-me-now-you-don't style that made him one of the leading figures of 1920s and '30s.
It was a style born of necessity, a way to compensate for a chronically injured right hand. Loughran was a tough Irish Catholic kid from South Philly and knew how to make do with what he had.
While his right was next to useless, Loughran's left was something special, a punch he used, according to historian Bert Sugar, "with all the guile of a pickpocket to pick his opponents clean."
So what if he only recorded 18 knockouts in 174 bouts? One good hand, nimble footwork and a superior boxing IQ was all Loughran needed to beat such notable adversaries as Max Baer, Jack Sharkey, Jim Braddock, Harry Greb, Mickey Walker and Mike McTigue, from whom he won the light heavyweight title in 1927.
Loughran-Kovalev would be a tense cat-and-mouse affair, and it is unlikely the Russian would be able to outbox a man of Loughran's skill level. At some point the "Krusher" would have to go for it.
Maybe he would stop Loughran, maybe he wouldn't. A win for the "Krusher" is certainly within the bounds of reason. But my money would be on the guy who avoided Baer's crippling right hand for 10 rounds and gave away 84 pounds to Primo Carnera and still finished on his feet.
Loughran hangs on to win a majority decision.
Jimmy Bivins
Along with Charlie Burley, Bivins heads the class of great black boxers who never won a world title due to the color of their skin. To a degree, the so-called color bar was a thing of the past when Bivins turned pro in 1940, and there had been plenty of black champions since George Dixon became featherweight ruler in 1890.
Nonetheless, a combination of economics and lingering racism still impeded black fighters. The hard truth was that white fighters generally drew larger crowds, even those who were clearly inferior to their black counterparts. As a result, the top black boxers had little alternative but to fight each other over and over for next to nothing.
Bivins did defeat many top white fighters, but never with the championship on the line. He beat light heavy champ Gus Lesnevich in a non-title fight, but couldn't get him back in the ring with the title on the line. Other victims included Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Joey Maxim, Anton Christoforidis and Melio Bettina -- all titleholders at one time or another.
Social and economic difficulty aside, Bivins' major problem was inconsistency. He also lost fights to many of those he beat, including the five aforementioned fighters. Could he have beaten Kovalev? Definitely. But the hunch here is that Kovalev's advantage in punching power, coupled with Bivins' somewhat erratic form, would be enough to secure a decision victory for the "Krusher."
Harold Johnson
"[Harold] Johnson would have been a greater force if he had not been cursed by the presence of Archie Moore, just as Ezzard Charles had vexed Moore earlier," William Dettloff wrote in 2002. "Moore was the light heavyweight of the era -- indeed, of many eras it turned out -- and Johnson, as brilliant as he was, just couldn't get past him."
Finally, in the latter stages of his career, with Moore fading into the sunset, Johnson won the vacant light heavyweight championship with a decision over Doug Jones in 1962 and made one successful defense before losing the title to Willie Pastrano on a questionable decision in '63.
Johnson did his best work against aggressive opponents, rebuffing their attacks with deft defensive movement while waiting patiently for his antagonist to make a mistake. When they did, he'd make them pay, usually with a counter right that was a thing of beauty.
It is unlikely Johnson-Kovalev would be very exciting, particularly if things were going well for the Philadelphian. It wouldn't be easy, but at his best Johnson would neutralize Kovalev's punching power and box his way to a decision victory.
Maxie Rosenbloom
Anyone who doesn't know or can't guess why Rosenbloom was known as "Slapsie Maxie" should take a closer look at his record. In 298 pro bouts, the man who held the light heavyweight tile from 1930 until 1934 scored just 19 knockouts, making him undoubtedly the most successful feather-fisted boxer of all time.
"It was his ringmanship that won him more than 200 fights," Bert Sugar wrote. "Rosenbloom was a member of the jab-and-grab club who gave his opponents very little to hit, throwing his tush at them, crouching low to the floor, doing everything he could from getting hit."
Rosenbloom was stopped just twice, and one of them was allegedly "prearranged," so it's doubtful Kovalev would be able to take him out. However, Rosenbloom would be too preoccupied scrambling away from Kovalev's relentless bombardment to score many points. Kovalev wouldn't look good doing it, but he'd come away with the decision.
Billy Conn
Sugar nailed it when he called Conn "a more spectacular version of Loughran," and had he spent more time in the 175-pound class, the "Pittsburgh Kid" would have rated higher on this list. But as it was, Conn fought as a middleweight prior to moving up and winning the light heavy title from Bettina in 1939, and only made two defenses before relinquishing the title to campaign as a heavyweight.
Even so, Conn never really outgrew light heavyweight class and weighed just 169 when he challenged Joe Louis for the heavyweight title, even though it was officially announced as 174. But heavyweight was where the money was, and Conn's brilliant boxing skills and belief in himself were usually more than enough to handle any heavyweight not named Joe Louis.
If Conn could manage to stay even with Louis for almost 13 rounds before the roof caved in, he would be able to do likewise and maybe more against a Kovalev, a fighter his own size. Providing he could control his emotions and not go for the gusto the way he did with Louis, a decision win for Conn would be the most likely outcome.
Matthew Saad Muhammad
From April 22, 1977, until December 19, 1982, Saad Muhammad was undefeated in 18 consecutive fights, including winning the WBC light heavyweight title and making eight successful defenses. It was a glorious streak of unadulterated savagery in which he absorbed and inflicted inordinate amounts of punishment.
His reputation for Lazarus-like resurrections grew to mythical proportions as one miracle comeback followed another. And during his fleeting time at the top, Saad Muhammad was flat out the most exciting fighter in the world. But it couldn't last forever, and it didn't.
Still, had he tangled with Kovalev during his time of grace, you have to figure Saad would shake off Kovalev's best punches and find a way to win. He always did.