Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward

[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.