Usually in these cases, you have that option of one Russian judge, one American judge and one from neither.... or you could have all 3 neutral. Like one from Canada, one from the UK, and one from say Japan? The thing is Kovalev fought in both Canada and the UK. Maybe the foreign judges had a chance to see him live. Ward, being in a super 6 international tournament was the only one "lucky" enough to fight every match at home, though there were international judges mandated as part of the rules. Don't see why its a problem now.