Quote Originally Posted by wanderingfighter View Post
Some thoughts:

Both fighters fought a relatively dirty fight if we go by guidelines of the sport. Though I could see the holding by the neck, and rabbit punches from Kovalev as a counter to Ward's method of coming in leading with his head.

Whenever Kovalev connected with a strong lead punch or counter, Ward's tactic was to clinch in order to keep Kovalev from putting shots together. His whole game plan was to clinch to neutralize distance. Though there's a difference between the skill of in-fighting and blatantly clinching with illegal tactics. We can probably look at some videos of past great fighters who fought with an inside style and see if they launch themselves head first into their opponents guard. Maybe we can make some comparisons here.

Also how come Ward did not use his right hand much? I don't tend to watch Andre Ward's fights too often. But is he a southpaw fighting out of the orthodox stance? It seems to me like all he did was throw the left hand, and whenever he threw the right he got countered. That's how he got knocked down in the 2nd round. Maybe using your lead left for the majority of a bout is a good way to neutralize a fighter with a strong right hand? I'm not sure, can anyone in this forum go more into depth about this?


PRECISELY! Some key points are made here in a very objective, unbiased manner:


1. Both fighters engaged in a lot of dirty fighting. Difference being, Kovalev was responding to Ward's dirty tactics.

2. There is a DEFINITE difference between skilled in-fighting and clinching and mauling and launching yourself into your opponent head first..... 10,000-word theses notwithstanding.

3. Ward DEFINITELY did not use his right hand much. In addition, his use of the left included a lot of useless and annoying pawing, which of course gave the impression that he was (ahem)... busy.



And there's probably a reason why you don't watch Andre Ward's fights too often.............. they SUCK.