Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward

[palmerq]

I wonder what @Paul Kevin's opinion was of this fight?

anthony joshua

[Batman]

I wonder what @Paul Kevin's opinion was of this fight?

it will either be

Ward won

or

Kovalev won

[chef97]

Watched it again, but with the sound off (thanks for the YouTube, Batman).
The robbery is even more obvious than ever.

Round 1: Hard Kov jab rattles Ward. Not much else. 10-9 Kov
Round 2: Knockdown. 10-8 Kov
Round 3: Not much actually connected from either side, but gave the edge to Ward. 10-9 Ward
Round 4: Ward does precious little except for meaningless pawing. 10-9 Kov
Round 5: Close round, but gave edge to Kov. 10-9 Kov
Round 6: Clear round for Kov. Ward going backwards and grappling (I hate grappling). 10-9 Kov
Round 7: Could call this one even, but I'll generously give it to Ward. 10-9 Ward
Round 8: They BOTH did a lot of missing, not just Kov. 10-9 Ward
Round 9: 10-9 Kov
Round 10: Ward bolo'ed..... Kov jabbed him in the face. Clear round for Kov. 10-9 Kov
Round 11: One of the better rounds of the fight. Good exchanges. Ward lefts and Kov rights. 10-9 Ward
Round 12: Close round, but 10-9 Kov

116-111 Kovalev


Several things.

Ward missed just as much as Kov.
I absolutely HATE Ward's style with a passion. Grappling is Ward's style. To Kov's credit, he was drawn into it, but refused to be pushed around.
Kov was the aggressor all night long. He was the defending champion. How the hell do you lose three belts like that?

It's official.... it was highway robbery, and HBO are accomplices.

I was thinking the same and there were two terrible decisions that night Hooker & Ward and both guys are promoted by RocNation.... Coincidence?

[TitoFan]

Watched it again, but with the sound off (thanks for the YouTube, Batman).
The robbery is even more obvious than ever.

Round 1: Hard Kov jab rattles Ward. Not much else. 10-9 Kov
Round 2: Knockdown. 10-8 Kov
Round 3: Not much actually connected from either side, but gave the edge to Ward. 10-9 Ward
Round 4: Ward does precious little except for meaningless pawing. 10-9 Kov
Round 5: Close round, but gave edge to Kov. 10-9 Kov
Round 6: Clear round for Kov. Ward going backwards and grappling (I hate grappling). 10-9 Kov
Round 7: Could call this one even, but I'll generously give it to Ward. 10-9 Ward
Round 8: They BOTH did a lot of missing, not just Kov. 10-9 Ward
Round 9: 10-9 Kov
Round 10: Ward bolo'ed..... Kov jabbed him in the face. Clear round for Kov. 10-9 Kov
Round 11: One of the better rounds of the fight. Good exchanges. Ward lefts and Kov rights. 10-9 Ward
Round 12: Close round, but 10-9 Kov

116-111 Kovalev


Several things.

Ward missed just as much as Kov.
I absolutely HATE Ward's style with a passion. Grappling is Ward's style. To Kov's credit, he was drawn into it, but refused to be pushed around.
Kov was the aggressor all night long. He was the defending champion. How the hell do you lose three belts like that?

It's official.... it was highway robbery, and HBO are accomplices.

I was thinking the same and there were two terrible decisions that night Hooker & Ward and both guys are promoted by RocNation.... Coincidence?

We're conditioned to be so skeptical that at this point nothing would faze me. It's too bad boxing has to be this way.

[TitoFan]

It's not even the actual closeness (or not) or the fight. It's the complete and utter predictability of the decision. Let's say we could've stopped time immediately after the fight and before the decision was announced. Let's say that during that pause we took two polls from fans. One poll to see who everyone thought actually won the fight.... and the other poll to see who the fans thought was going to get the decision. I'd be willing to bet the polls would be something like this: 80-90% of fans would probably say they thought Kovalev won the fight....... while 99-100% of fans would vote that Ward would get the decision. There's something inherently wrong with this.

[Lefty08]

There's something inherently wrong with this.

Yes there is.

Ward was not the aggressor nor did any significant damage to Kovalev. It reminds me of Hopkin's prediction video that Ward will have to get Kovalev's respect early on in the fight by hitting him with power shots to stop his consistent advances and give him those second guessing thoughts. Ward landed some "power" shots and it did not faze Sergey one fucking bit. Kovalev was the aggressor the entire fight, he beat Ward at his own game (boxing). Kovalevs punches were hurting Ward. SOG was on that back pedal landing jabs in between shoulder charges and clinches. I admit he did a good job turning the mental aspect of the fight into a battleground, but the field belonged to Kovalev. It was unfair and a bullshit call. Plain and simple. The crowd boo'd at the decision, Lampley and Roy Jones didn't agree, Kellerman was biased towards Andre to my surprise.

Both fighters fought a good fight and it was one for the fans, but Andre did not do enough to win or become champion of three belts. I was disgusted with the sport that night.

[Andre]

Better view of the fight here:

[J_Undisputed]

It's not even the actual closeness (or not) or the fight. It's the complete and utter predictability of the decision. Let's say we could've stopped time immediately after the fight and before the decision was announced. Let's say that during that pause we took two polls from fans. One poll to see who everyone thought actually won the fight.... and the other poll to see who the fans thought was going to get the decision. I'd be willing to bet the polls would be something like this: 80-90% of fans would probably say they thought Kovalev won the fight....... while 99-100% of fans would vote that Ward would get the decision. There's something inherently wrong with this.

I agree. The popularity paranoia effect. Campaign and use the media to your advantage by flooding the landscape (your sport, your political playing field, your business field) with propaganda (disguised as human interest stories, heavy polarizing statements, or sob stories, etc) to gain you popularity, which overflows to the landscape. The increase in popularity for the individual usually equals revenue... so much that the landscape is now dependent on the individual which earns him/her favorable treatment. Get the most amount of positive (paycheck/ influence due to popularity) for the least amount of actual hard work done (replaced by benefit of the doubt).

Leonard did it with Hagler. The comeback itself was the perfect platform. Tyson did a lot of it by accident (cocaine is a helluva drug!) I'd say more recently Mayweather began using aggressively and mainstreaming it to build the second half of his career, following players in other sports. It became the reason I stopped watching basketball years ago (when it became fouling for points- and players put more effort into getting fouled and winning the game from the free throw line with the clock stopped than actually shooting. Why show you're better than the superstar on the other team when you can cheaply just get him to foul out by acting like you're shot when he put a hand up to block your hail mary-esque shot?) --

Noone bothered to ask:

Why Mayweather started to publicly act like a blatantly racist @$$hole only in the later half of his career? Why would he say slave contract? Or take cheapshots at pacquiaos nationality? How do you sucker punch someone and win by KO. Dictate attire, fight conditions for your opponents?

Why people were feeling the same sort of screw job paranoia after Kovalev had just beat Hopkins pillar to post? (Hopkins proclaiming himself to be the freak of nature and people thought wow this is going to be like George Foreman all over again)

Why did ward who was a private person, come out with the stuck between a crackhead and and alcoholic story (but i still managed to win a gold medal), before the fight-- now after all these years.. People said unbeaten since he was 12?!?!?! surely if anyone can beat the russian monster it will be him He got staggered by a jab but didn't go down ... he went down but he got back up and he didn't go down again, and he found a way to stop the assault and landed a punch
The sport will only get worse, as Canelo has started to follow suit, Fury started trying to pull the rock star act with misogynistic banter. The boxing cultures around the world have lived in the shadows of the American Boxing scene, maybe because of marketing, but id like to think there was a disparity in honor in that they weren't willing to sell themselves as cheaply. Just a theory... make of it what you will.

[Hulk]

It's not even the actual closeness (or not) or the fight. It's the complete and utter predictability of the decision. Let's say we could've stopped time immediately after the fight and before the decision was announced. Let's say that during that pause we took two polls from fans. One poll to see who everyone thought actually won the fight.... and the other poll to see who the fans thought was going to get the decision. I'd be willing to bet the polls would be something like this: 80-90% of fans would probably say they thought Kovalev won the fight....... while 99-100% of fans would vote that Ward would get the decision. There's something inherently wrong with this.

I agree. The popularity paranoia effect. Campaign and use the media to your advantage by flooding the landscape (your sport, your political playing field, your business field) with propaganda (disguised as human interest stories, heavy polarizing statements, or sob stories, etc) to gain you popularity, which overflows to the landscape. The increase in popularity for the individual usually equals revenue... so much that the landscape is now dependent on the individual which earns him/her favorable treatment. Get the most amount of positive (paycheck/ influence due to popularity) for the least amount of actual hard work done (replaced by benefit of the doubt). Leonard did it with Hagler. The comeback itself was the perfect platform. Tyson did a lot of it by accident (cocaine is a helluva drug!) I'd say more recently Mayweather began using aggressively and mainstreaming it to build the second half of his career, following players in other sports. It became the reason I stopped watching basketball years ago (when it became fouling for points- and players put more effort into getting fouled and winning the game from the free throw line with the clock stopped than actually shooting. Why show you're better than the superstar on the other team when you can cheaply just get him to foul out by acting like you're shot when he put a hand up to block your hail mary-esque shot?) -- Noone bothered to ask:Why Mayweather started to publicly act like a blatantly racist @$$hole only in the later half of his career? Why would he say slave contract? Or take cheapshots at pacquiaos nationality? How do you sucker punch someone and win by KO. Dictate attire, fight conditions for your opponents?Why people were feeling the same sort of screw job paranoia after Kovalev had just beat Hopkins pillar to post? (Hopkins proclaiming himself to be the freak of nature and people thought wow this is going to be like George Foreman all over again)Why did ward who was a private person, come out with the stuck between a crackhead and and alcoholic story (but i still managed to win a gold medal), before the fight-- now after all these years.. People said unbeaten since he was 12?!?!?! surely if anyone can beat the russian monster it will be him He got staggered by a jab but didn't go down ... he went down but he got back up and he didn't go down again, and he found a way to stop the assault and landed a punchThe sport will only get worse, as Canelo has started to follow suit, Fury started trying to pull the rock star act with misogynistic banter. The boxing cultures around the world have lived in the shadows of the American Boxing scene, maybe because of marketing, but id like to think there was a disparity in honor in that they weren't willing to sell themselves as cheaply. Just a theory... make of it what you will.

Are you a Demarcus Cousins and fellow Sacramento Kings fan? Lol

[J_Undisputed]

It's not even the actual closeness (or not) or the fight. It's the complete and utter predictability of the decision. Let's say we could've stopped time immediately after the fight and before the decision was announced. Let's say that during that pause we took two polls from fans. One poll to see who everyone thought actually won the fight.... and the other poll to see who the fans thought was going to get the decision. I'd be willing to bet the polls would be something like this: 80-90% of fans would probably say they thought Kovalev won the fight....... while 99-100% of fans would vote that Ward would get the decision. There's something inherently wrong with this.

I agree. The popularity paranoia effect. Campaign and use the media to your advantage by flooding the landscape (your sport, your political playing field, your business field) with propaganda (disguised as human interest stories, heavy polarizing statements, or sob stories, etc) to gain you popularity, which overflows to the landscape. The increase in popularity for the individual usually equals revenue... so much that the landscape is now dependent on the individual which earns him/her favorable treatment. Get the most amount of positive (paycheck/ influence due to popularity) for the least amount of actual hard work done (replaced by benefit of the doubt). Leonard did it with Hagler. The comeback itself was the perfect platform. Tyson did a lot of it by accident (cocaine is a helluva drug!) I'd say more recently Mayweather began using aggressively and mainstreaming it to build the second half of his career, following players in other sports. It became the reason I stopped watching basketball years ago (when it became fouling for points- and players put more effort into getting fouled and winning the game from the free throw line with the clock stopped than actually shooting. Why show you're better than the superstar on the other team when you can cheaply just get him to foul out by acting like you're shot when he put a hand up to block your hail mary-esque shot?) -- Noone bothered to ask:Why Mayweather started to publicly act like a blatantly racist @$$hole only in the later half of his career? Why would he say slave contract? Or take cheapshots at pacquiaos nationality? How do you sucker punch someone and win by KO. Dictate attire, fight conditions for your opponents?Why people were feeling the same sort of screw job paranoia after Kovalev had just beat Hopkins pillar to post? (Hopkins proclaiming himself to be the freak of nature and people thought wow this is going to be like George Foreman all over again)Why did ward who was a private person, come out with the stuck between a crackhead and and alcoholic story (but i still managed to win a gold medal), before the fight-- now after all these years.. People said unbeaten since he was 12?!?!?! surely if anyone can beat the russian monster it will be him He got staggered by a jab but didn't go down ... he went down but he got back up and he didn't go down again, and he found a way to stop the assault and landed a punchThe sport will only get worse, as Canelo has started to follow suit, Fury started trying to pull the rock star act with misogynistic banter. The boxing cultures around the world have lived in the shadows of the American Boxing scene, maybe because of marketing, but id like to think there was a disparity in honor in that they weren't willing to sell themselves as cheaply. Just a theory... make of it what you will.

Are you a Demarcus Cousins and fellow Sacramento Kings fan? Lol

Little past my time i'm afraid. But looking him up now, he definitely seems like a reason to watch. If you're going to called for a foul, mind as well earn it. I was a knicks fan and my heyday more more around the time that chris childs punched kobe in the throat. We had a quite a few players like cousins. Including anthony mason... Noone the level of a Lambeer or Rodman though

[Hulk]

It's not even the actual closeness (or not) or the fight. It's the complete and utter predictability of the decision. Let's say we could've stopped time immediately after the fight and before the decision was announced. Let's say that during that pause we took two polls from fans. One poll to see who everyone thought actually won the fight.... and the other poll to see who the fans thought was going to get the decision. I'd be willing to bet the polls would be something like this: 80-90% of fans would probably say they thought Kovalev won the fight....... while 99-100% of fans would vote that Ward would get the decision. There's something inherently wrong with this.

I agree. The popularity paranoia effect. Campaign and use the media to your advantage by flooding the landscape (your sport, your political playing field, your business field) with propaganda (disguised as human interest stories, heavy polarizing statements, or sob stories, etc) to gain you popularity, which overflows to the landscape. The increase in popularity for the individual usually equals revenue... so much that the landscape is now dependent on the individual which earns him/her favorable treatment. Get the most amount of positive (paycheck/ influence due to popularity) for the least amount of actual hard work done (replaced by benefit of the doubt). Leonard did it with Hagler. The comeback itself was the perfect platform. Tyson did a lot of it by accident (cocaine is a helluva drug!) I'd say more recently Mayweather began using aggressively and mainstreaming it to build the second half of his career, following players in other sports. It became the reason I stopped watching basketball years ago (when it became fouling for points- and players put more effort into getting fouled and winning the game from the free throw line with the clock stopped than actually shooting. Why show you're better than the superstar on the other team when you can cheaply just get him to foul out by acting like you're shot when he put a hand up to block your hail mary-esque shot?) -- Noone bothered to ask:Why Mayweather started to publicly act like a blatantly racist @$$hole only in the later half of his career? Why would he say slave contract? Or take cheapshots at pacquiaos nationality? How do you sucker punch someone and win by KO. Dictate attire, fight conditions for your opponents?Why people were feeling the same sort of screw job paranoia after Kovalev had just beat Hopkins pillar to post? (Hopkins proclaiming himself to be the freak of nature and people thought wow this is going to be like George Foreman all over again)Why did ward who was a private person, come out with the stuck between a crackhead and and alcoholic story (but i still managed to win a gold medal), before the fight-- now after all these years.. People said unbeaten since he was 12?!?!?! surely if anyone can beat the russian monster it will be him He got staggered by a jab but didn't go down ... he went down but he got back up and he didn't go down again, and he found a way to stop the assault and landed a punchThe sport will only get worse, as Canelo has started to follow suit, Fury started trying to pull the rock star act with misogynistic banter. The boxing cultures around the world have lived in the shadows of the American Boxing scene, maybe because of marketing, but id like to think there was a disparity in honor in that they weren't willing to sell themselves as cheaply. Just a theory... make of it what you will.

Are you a Demarcus Cousins and fellow Sacramento Kings fan? Lol

Little past my time i'm afraid. But looking him up now, he definitely seems like a reason to watch. If you're going to called for a foul, mind as well earn it. I was a knicks fan and my heyday more more around the time that chris childs punched kobe in the throat. We had a quite a few players like cousins. Including anthony mason... Noone the level of a Lambeer or Rodman though

Cousins is the best center in the NBA and an all-star. He's also a giant crybaby who thinks he's always getting fouled lolI just really got into watching last year. Kings suck, but it's loads of fun to watch as those in the U.K. would say. Knicks suck now too lol

[mrbig1]

I had Kovalev by 2 points. he will have to be in better shape for the rematch. Looks like Kovalev ran out of gas toward the end which made it a close fight.