Quote Originally Posted by Gandalf View Post
That's being GENEROUS to Ward. Ward was smacking Kov repeatedly in the balls. Being more realistic, a halt should have been called, Ward warned, and five minute time be called. A harsher man would say dock a point from Ward as it wasn't the first time he had done that. Instead the ref stopped the fight and ruled it a stoppage. It was bollocks.

Kovalev has outboxed Ward twice now and yet look at HBO salivating over Ward. It's topsy turvy land.
I agree with the first part. If the referee was on top of it, that is what should have happened - a warning and a few minutes to recover if Kovalev needed it. I honestly thought most of the "low" blows were on the belt line and good. There were a few below the belt, though. Certainly, the last one before the stoppage was unintentionally low. A small bit of the blame for the stoppage is Kovalev's - bad strategy to drop your hands and complain at that moment. It would have been better to drop to a knee and then plead your case. All in all, a bit unlucky for Kovalev.

Regarding being out boxed, Kovalev definitely was doing that in the first 4-5 rounds of the first fight but certainly not afterwards (at worst it was even). The second fight saw Kovalev's jab working well for parts of a few rounds. Otherwise, Ward was in firm control of the direction and outcome of the fight.

For me, the difference in this fight came down to one fighter having purpose and the other one not so much. It's telling that Ward was looking for the KO more so than Kovalev.

If Ward does not find big fights elsewhere, I'm guessing Kovalev gets one more chance after a few impressive wins. Kovalev should get to Adonis before Ward does.