Only if anyone thinks Ward can be classed as the second best lhvy without actually having to prove it!
After he beat Chad Dawson, I doubt that any fighter under 175lbs would have been favoured over him, at any weight. As for 168lbs, he was winning everything with almost mechanical certainty. This is an interesting fight.
Dawson weighed 168lbs for that fight, previously he hadn't been near 168lbs for 7 years . Its an interesting and intruiging fight, but not one matching the 2 proven best 175pounders.
This isn't Hagler Hearns but it is the dominant 168 pfp and undefeated fighter versus the equivalent at 175. Stevenson is a joke who won't fight a live body and given boxing politics these days, it is a rare event to get two such highly ranked undefeated fighters in the ring.
I'm predicting a great fight. I had picked Kovalev the months building up to this. But the closer we get, the more I'm actually leaning towards Ward. Something tells me Ward is taking this with his boxing IQ.
I had Kovalev taking it, but will definitely watch it again. Would be cool if they had a rematch in like 3 months. This was a great fight!
An impressive performance by Andre and for me it wasn't as close as the official score cards - I had it 116-113 in favour of Ward, who consistently did the best work, with Kovalev being unable to land more than single shots in the second half of the fight - but the mere fact that a number of writers and pundits had Kovalev up by 3/4 rounds suggests to me as we already knew....the vast majority of them know fu ck all about the sport!!
I seriously don't get the hype with Ward, Kovalev clearly won!!! It wasn't the worst of robberies but it was a robbery nevertheless. Kovalev won clearly but he fought the wrong fight for much of the bout. He got caught in the wrestling bull**** that the overhyped Ward would rather do than fight with his fists. Kovalev was picking Ward apart for the first few rounds and even staggered him with a jab. Kovalev should have kept his distance and box instead of wrestling. The judges were blind....