Ward/Kovalev 2...who wins?

[Gandalf]

Dear lord people. Over and over "I think he deserved a count"

The fight was fought under the unified rules of the boxing commisions. That means no standing eight count. He CAN NOT give him a standing eight count. If we're going to ignore what was happening in the fight for details let's get the details right.

That's being GENEROUS to Ward. Ward was smacking Kov repeatedly in the balls. Being more realistic, a halt should have been called, Ward warned, and five minute time be called. A harsher man would say dock a point from Ward as it wasn't the first time he had done that. Instead the ref stopped the fight and ruled it a stoppage. It was bollocks.

Kovalev has outboxed Ward twice now and yet look at HBO salivating over Ward. It's topsy turvy land.

[Ron Swanson]

Dear lord people. Over and over "I think he deserved a count"

The fight was fought under the unified rules of the boxing commisions. That means no standing eight count. He CAN NOT give him a standing eight count. If we're going to ignore what was happening in the fight for details let's get the details right.

That's being GENEROUS to Ward. Ward was smacking Kov repeatedly in the balls. Being more realistic, a halt should have been called, Ward warned, and five minute time be called. A harsher man would say dock a point from Ward as it wasn't the first time he had done that. Instead the ref stopped the fight and ruled it a stoppage. It was bollocks.

Kovalev has outboxed Ward twice now and yet look at HBO salivating over Ward. It's topsy turvy land.

A couple points. If Weeks had halted the action ruling a low blow I would have no issue. I'm just saying you can't change the rules with "I think he should have". It wasn't an option to give a standing 8. I personally hate no standing 8. I think champions always deserve a chance to recover. But I understand the reasoning. Standing 8 opens too many things up to judgement and also would often steal fighters option to finish.

In this instance no standing 8 count robbed Ward of the opportunity to finish him clean.

What's hilarious in all this is everyone wants to talk about what didn't make the outcome to avoid what did. Outboxing, I agree. But it's irrelevant because Andre broke him. He was not going the distance.

Low blows, there were some. But it was the hard legit punches that hard Kovalev gassed and had him ready to be stopped.

Here's John David Jackson(I really don't like this guy but if he's right he's right) on point about the fight

https://youtu.be/Yk4Dr61QwS0

[Vendettos]

If the punches were low Kov took it like a bitch.

Millions of dollers on the line and he coward like a girl, he barely moaned about it as the stoppage happened.

Case and point, he was happy the fight was ended and decided that his victory was going to be his ability to claim low blows

That's was his whole win in that moment.

You can moan all you want guys but in that 25 seconds of being chased after that right hand landed he accepted that "low blows" was his argument. He was in trouble and we could all see that he was in danger... low blows or not, even before the "low blows" Ward was all over him and he folded.

He is a warrior and he trained everyday for months, a punch in the balls is hard to take yes but they wear full protective gear, almost everyone takes a shot that may be considered low IN EVERY fight you've ever watched. It's not like the shots where massively low, even after watching 10 replys (and wanting Kov to win ) they didnt seem obviously low.

Fair victory.

[Gandalf]

Clear as day, a completely illegal punch and then the ref jumped in to finish it off. Ward cheated and the ref screwed up.

Kovalev beat Ward twice. That was not a loss. Ward had one dominant round and squeaked two others in a fight he was LOSING.

[Gandalf]

If the punches were low Kov took it like a bitch.

Millions of dollers on the line and he coward like a girl, he barely moaned about it as the stoppage happened.

Case and point, he was happy the fight was ended and decided that his victory was going to be his ability to claim low blows

That's was his whole win in that moment.

You can moan all you want guys but in that 25 seconds of being chased after that right hand landed he accepted that "low blows" was his argument. He was in trouble and we could all see that he was in danger... low blows or not, even before the "low blows" Ward was all over him and he folded.

He is a warrior and he trained everyday for months, a punch in the balls is hard to take yes but they wear full protective gear, almost everyone takes a shot that may be considered low IN EVERY fight you've ever watched. It's not like the shots where massively low, even after watching 10 replys (and wanting Kov to win ) they didnt seem obviously low.

Fair victory.

Think about those two bolded statements for a moment and watch the slow motion video I posted above. The punch was VERY low and it was an absurd 'victory'. Not only are you bad at scoring fights, but you talk gibberish.

Losing a round pretty badly is just that. Ward had a couple in the first fight and you don't stop it based on that.

Ward was still losing on many cards even with a 10-8 round, but as the evidence shows, there shouldn't have even been a KD and should in fact have been a Ward deduction thus solidifying Kovalevs lead with an even round 8.

To stop a fight like that? A big no, no, no.

[palmerq]

post fight conference is pretty funny, I find teh angry russian fellow quite amusing

[Ron Swanson]

Fighters will speak the truth, Terrence Crawford when did you know the fight was over "when he started complaining"
https://youtu.be/Z7lIPi0BtUc

[powerpuncher]

The more I think about it, the more impressed I am with Ward. You can't blame a fighter when the ref doesn't call the low blow. Almost all were belt line that Kovalev was complaining about. He broke Kovalev. That's really all there is to it.

[Manju]

I find teh angry russian fellow quite amusing

Hey, there's no reason to bring Donald Trump into this conversation!

[Ron Swanson]

I think people get so caught up in the scoring of a fight that they miss what's happening to the fighters in the fight. You can win rounds and take the worst of it. Some examples

Chavez vs Taylor. Taylor was winning the rounds. But yyou'd have be blind to not see Taylor was taking a beating.

Brook vs Spence. Brook was winning the rounds but Spence was doing the lasting work that was breaking him down.

Toney vs Jirov. Close fight but it was clear Toney was breaking him down.

You can list example after example like this. Kovalev started off sharper. But after 6 rounds I think everyone could see if there was going to be a stoppage it was Ward that was going to stop Kovalev. Kovalev was getting weaker and more ragged every round. It wasn't from the low blow in the 2nd, the 3rd was Kovalevs best round probably. It wasn't from the low blows at the end. It was because of the legit body shots. The hard left hooks that were beginning to land. Even live I was saying "it' strange, Kovalev is landing more but Ward is landing the harder punches. Seems backwards"

It sucks how it ended but Ward had broken him down. Take the low blows away and we have a 9th or 10th round KO instead of an 8th round TKO.

I actually feel a little bad for Kovalev because, as Roy said after the fight, the Eastern European fighters have 28 years of pro experience. They are very skilled in the amateur style but they haven't caught up on the pro tricks. If you think the guy is hitting you low you hit them low back. Like Hatton did to Tszyu. It's not Kovalevs fault where he was born. But if he had grown up in a country that had a long professional history he would know this.

But in the end low blows were part of the ending, not part of the outcome. The outcome was decided when he began to gas out. And it was far too early.

[hmmfe]

That's being GENEROUS to Ward. Ward was smacking Kov repeatedly in the balls. Being more realistic, a halt should have been called, Ward warned, and five minute time be called. A harsher man would say dock a point from Ward as it wasn't the first time he had done that. Instead the ref stopped the fight and ruled it a stoppage. It was bollocks.

Kovalev has outboxed Ward twice now and yet look at HBO salivating over Ward. It's topsy turvy land.

I agree with the first part. If the referee was on top of it, that is what should have happened - a warning and a few minutes to recover if Kovalev needed it. I honestly thought most of the "low" blows were on the belt line and good. There were a few below the belt, though. Certainly, the last one before the stoppage was unintentionally low. A small bit of the blame for the stoppage is Kovalev's - bad strategy to drop your hands and complain at that moment. It would have been better to drop to a knee and then plead your case. All in all, a bit unlucky for Kovalev.

Regarding being out boxed, Kovalev definitely was doing that in the first 4-5 rounds of the first fight but certainly not afterwards (at worst it was even). The second fight saw Kovalev's jab working well for parts of a few rounds. Otherwise, Ward was in firm control of the direction and outcome of the fight.

For me, the difference in this fight came down to one fighter having purpose and the other one not so much. It's telling that Ward was looking for the KO more so than Kovalev.

If Ward does not find big fights elsewhere, I'm guessing Kovalev gets one more chance after a few impressive wins. Kovalev should get to Adonis before Ward does.