Rewatched the fight and the holding especially is being overblown. First of all, Ward rarely held when Kessler was moving forward. Most of the holding was done as Ward moved forward and put Kessler on the inside where Kessler did not want to be. Kel the ref wasn't allowing Ward to finish hitting on the break, Ward was the only person throwing punches on the inside, working his free hand and Kessler only held. That's all Kessler did when Ward was right on him, no punching. I'm sorry but Ward did fight dirty and the ref was incompetent (also an apparent egomaniac) but it went both ways and Kessler didn't lose because any of this. Btw, I saw 2 or 3 headbutts and only one was clearly Ward's fault.

Fact is he fought a great fight, outhustled THE FAVORITE IN THE TOURNAMENT, didn't allow him a round (I honestly do not see how they gave round 5 to Kessler), didn't take his foot off the gas and did what winning fighters do, never took any time off.