Who won? Kovalev or Ward?

[Gandalf]

I haven't watched the fight in full yet, but I have just got through the first 6 rounds and have it thus far:
1 - K
2 - k
3- W
4 - K
5 - K
6 - K

It's not a very interesting fight so far. Ward is walking around or grappling and Kovalev seems to be half asleep, but at the half way mark Ward is 6 points down. He needs KD's to win this fight and he needs every round to get a draw. I will need a cup of tea before I watch the rest of this as it isn't very interesting. Ward earned 5 million for this? Boxing needs a long look in the mirror. These two hardly look like the best fighters in the world at this stage. Maybe the next 6 rounds will enlighten me.

[Gandalf]

7 - W
8 - W
9 - W
10- K
11 - W
12 - W

So, there you have it. A tale of two cities, a fight of two halves and a knockout to decide it.

I think Kovalev edged a very close fight. It was clearly the fight to show who the best in the division is, but all this talk of P4P is a bit corny IMO. Ward looked very flawed and lost half a fight, while Kovalev seems to have fallen asleep and given away half a fight. Top P4P fighters like Floyd or Manny don't do that. When you see Barrera against Morales you see close fights, but you see brilliant boxing not clinching or doing little for several rounds. That's the big difference. These are very good fighters in their class, but they are not the best PFP IMO. To be honest, I found the fight a bit tedious and my appetite for a rematch is reduced after seeing this.

[Gandalf]

Knockdown I mean, though I wish there had been a KO to end the tedium.

[palmerq]

I think Kovalev edged a very close fight. It was clearly the fight to show who the best in the division is, but all this talk of P4P is a bit corny IMO. Ward looked very flawed and lost half a fight

to be fair to ward he has gone up in weight to fight one of the best out there, he did have 2 fights at light heavyweight before this of course but they were really not the proper preperation to take on kovalev especially considering wards inactivity since beating froch, maybe that is wards faul maybe it isnt but I think he took on a great opponent with inadequate preperation and gave a very good account of himself, I think ward was definently surprised by kovalevs power and was not ready for it at all, I would like to see a rematch as i think kovalev won but ward was getting better as the fight went on. I had a similar scorecard as you, same scoreline but maybe not the exact rounds. I also thought this was a really interesting fight due to it being so close.

[Gandalf]

I think I was just expecting a bit more, but I have seen a lot of Ward fights, so I probably should have known better. He seldom gives a clean, fun fight. I was also disappointed with Kovalev, who seemed to fight very within himself and certainly in the second half should been upping the workload himself. A great fighter sees that the other guy has adapted and finds a different gear too and Kovalev looked a little one dimensional in that regard. You could see Ward adapting, but I didn't really see that in Kovalev. He was too conservative and if there is a rematch is the one that needs to show greater versatility.

When you think of the best fighting the best you have a lot of great fights in mind and this was more akin to a Wlad fight than any of that. Who can grabble the most? Who can throw as little as possible? Who can go for a walkabout the longest? It gets a bit dull.

[p4pking]

I still haven't rewatched it, as doing so will be more out of curiosity in seeing if I can agree with he verdict. Since I didn't care who won I decided to do other meaningless stuff instead today. If you gave the 10th to Ward you'd wind up with exactly what all 3 judges had it, he didn't need a knockdown when you said he did, just to point that out.

It's one of those fights where if you took all the people crying robbery and asked them to score it, there would probably be different rounds they gave to Ward between them, and assuming you could find 7 it makes the uproar pretty easy to refute. My impresion watching it live was that all 3 judges gave Ward basically every round they could have, which does seem like they had a dog in it. I read earlier that Kovalev is with HBO and Ward is a free agent, make of that what you will, but it could be a powerplay in terms of keeping his purse smallish again in a rematch.

[powerpuncher]

They are both really good fighter. Ward is just so good at adapting during the fight.

[Batman]

I'm not voting, I gave it to Ward initially but I have only seen the fight once so I'd like to see it again before saying for certain who I think won.

Only problem I don't think I can be arsed to watch it again.

[Gandalf]

It wasn't a fun fight and I wouldn't want to watch it again either. I don't get why Kov didn't do more so that this would all be settled. Maybe he is so used to crushing that we didn't realise he fades down the stretch. It was a strange performance. Thought he just did enough but accept that he didn't do enough in half the rounds. You just cannot do that and expect to win.

[Primo Carnera]

Maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment, but I thought it was a very interesting fight.
It was a high quality game of chess with a bit of power thrown in.
I love the tactical battles and seeing who imposes their fight on the opponent.
And just like the Mayweather/Pac fight, anybody who "expected more" either hasn't really studied the fighters or wasn't being realistic.
I'm not wanting to brag , but if you look at some of my comments before the fight, you'll see it went pretty much as I thought it would.
Not only are they 2 excellent fighters, they are also high class BOXERS, so a slugfest it was never going to be.

[Master]

Maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment, but I thought it was a very interesting fight.
It was a high quality game of chess with a bit of power thrown in.
I love the tactical battles and seeing who imposes their fight on the opponent.
And just like the Mayweather/Pac fight, anybody who "expected more" either hasn't really studied the fighters or wasn't being realistic.
I'm not wanting to brag , but if you look at some of my comments before the fight, you'll see it went pretty much as I thought it would.
Not only are they 2 excellent fighters, they are also high class BOXERS, so a slugfest it was never going to be.

From the sound of things Kov would have preferred a slugfest.

[Primo Carnera]

Maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment, but I thought it was a very interesting fight.
It was a high quality game of chess with a bit of power thrown in.
I love the tactical battles and seeing who imposes their fight on the opponent.
And just like the Mayweather/Pac fight, anybody who "expected more" either hasn't really studied the fighters or wasn't being realistic.
I'm not wanting to brag , but if you look at some of my comments before the fight, you'll see it went pretty much as I thought it would.
Not only are they 2 excellent fighters, they are also high class BOXERS, so a slugfest it was never going to be.

From the sound of things Kov would have preferred a slugfest.

Of course he would , and he would definitely have won a slugfest. But that is why enormous credit has to go to Ward , because he never allowed that to happen.
Two excellent fighters in a very close contest with loads of Thought going into it. What more do we want?

[Master]

Andre Ward survived a second-round knockdown to beat Sergey Kovalev on points and claim the Russian's IBF, WBA and WBO light-heavyweight titles.

American Ward, 32, won the battle of the unbeaten fighters by 114-113 on all three ringside scorecards in Las Vegas.

Ward landed some good punches but withstood pressure from Kovalev, 33, who was unhappy with the US judges.

"I agree they support their boxer but honestly, this is sport. Don't make it like politics," he said.

Asked whether he would face Ward again, Kovalev replied: "Sure - and I'll kick his ass."

But Ward felt he was worthy of his 31st professional victory.

"In a tight fight, he's going to feel like he got robbed. I'd have been been disappointed. But we got the belts tonight," he said.

"That was the first time in my career I got dropped. I'm pleased with the way I responded."

Kovalev's promoter Kathy Duva said she would use the rematch clause in the contract for a second fight.

"He won the first six rounds so I don't know how he could lose a decision,'' she said.


The clash between the skilful Ward and hard-hitting Kovalev was billed as the fight of the year, and lived up to expectations.

Ward had said he could finish the former super-middleweight champion early, but was left on the canvas in the second round by a stinging right-hander.

He eased his way back into the contest and landed a good left in the seventh round which jolted Kovalev.

Ward won all of the last six rounds on two scorecards, and five of six on a third , to inflict his opponent's first defeat in 32 fights.

"It was a fight of my life,'' said Kovalev. "I am disappointed in the judges' decision. He got maybe a few rounds, I agree with that. I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight.''

The judges appeared to favour Ward's counter-punching against the aggressive style of Kovalev.

"We were a little careless with that knockdown in the second round, but we landed the cleaner punches,'' said Ward's trainer Virgil Hunter.

Andre Ward fights back to beat Sergey Kovalev on points in Las Vegas super-fight - BBC Sport

[Mark TKO]

My first thought after watching it was a draw and maybe Kovalev if it had to go to one them.

But no complaints with ward getting it.

Rematch all the way

[vidgil]

I had it 7-5 Kovalev, but could easily see it 6-6 with Kovalev getting the 114-113 nod.

But I can't see 7-5 Ward. Way too close to be called a robbery, but I think the wrong man got the nod.

Gandalf I had it exactly the same as you, only I gave Kovalev the 12th round.