I don't watch many of this dude's fights and definitely would never pay to watch one, don't like his style, think he's dirty....... After watching some clips of the fight last night and reading reviews of it and also reading all the bitching and whining on here, I just wanted to make a few observations - How many times in Ward's career has he had a point/s deducted in-fight? Genuinely curious. But how do refs not go into his fights keeping a close eye on his bull****? He's been labeled a dirty fighter and rightfully so since early on in his career. How do these refs continuously let him get away with his shenanigans? - From what I saw and read, Kovalev had started to gas long before the final couple rounds. How much of that can be attributed to Ward's low blows is obviously up for dispute. - Ward will always have a ****-ton of asterisks next to his name and record. Controversial wins, dirty tactics, psy-ops in the buildup to fights, no VADA testing, and on and on. Regardless of what his record says at the end of his career, he can't cheat the public/boxing fans into thinking or considering him great. That has to be earned, and you can't stack that deck. He's got decent to good skills and talent, but for me he will never be great. - That said, he WANTS to be great and WANTS to win as badly as any fighter, whereas Kovalev doesn't seem to. The way Ward fights and the ongoing bull**** he pulls in fights he does it because they help him win. He's not good enough to decisively beat some guys. He cares more about his record than the integrity of the sport. I also think he abuses or has been abusing PED's for this reason. I'll never root for Ward as a fighter, but he will do anything to win, legal or not. Regardless of how you view Ward, he IS a winner. I'm also not a fan of Kovalev, but regardless of how you view Kovalev, he IS a loser. The two of them are as evenly matched as any two fighters in boxing, but if they fought 10 times, Ward WOULD win all 10. He is also much worse for the sport of boxing because of it. He either doesn't think the rules apply to him, doesn't care, or is a mix of the two. I could never understand how anyone could appreciate Ward's style as a fighter or be a fan of his, so typically, I'd be willing to bet every single fan of his in the world (or 99% of them) are either American, black, or both (willing to bet Kovalev's fan base has a somewhat similar basis). Fortunately for Ward's fans, he would have to be completely outclassed for him to ever lose, which is also very unfortunate for boxing. Many people consider the drive to win the single greatest attribute an athlete can have and is probably the single most prominent characteristic all people who are most successful in their respective fields share throughout the world. A very small percentage of that population is also very skilled and talented in their respective field as well, and they go down as ATG's, but you need the drive and the talent to be an ATG, the drive alone doesn't cut it. IMO, Andre Ward is no different than Lance Armstrong, Mark McGwire, or any number of other athletes caught cheating and condemned by the public trying to trick us into thinking they are/were great. Now, Ward may have never been caught using PED's (as his testing standards are far below almost any other sports, and if he had nothing to hide he would get VADA tested, simple as) but it's painfully obvious to any objective and non-biased spectator that he clearly bends/breaks numerous rules in and out of the ring and shits on his sport's integrity to get a leg up on the competition. End of the day, I think if you're a fan of Ward it's because of his race or nationality and nothing more, but luckily for you, he's a winner. I think if you're a fan of Kovalev, the majority of his fans are in his corner for the same reason as Ward's fans being in his corner, though I think Kova unarguably the better fighter to watch, but unfortunately for his fans, he's a loser. Whenever these two fight the unbiased fans and the sport takes a loss. Even though I'm sure the purists would almost always root for Kova's style over Ward's, at least Ward is alpha enough to know what he wants and to go out there and do everything in his power to achieve it, instead of whining like a ***** in retrospect. One last thought - For everyone bitching about the refereeing, the "win", Ward, and everything else that can be bitched about, why even bother? Really, why bother watching, bitching, and arguing, because I'm sure deep down all of you knew what the end result was going to be for the reasons listed anyways.
Is a testicle cracking, back acne infested, elbow throwing, takedown attempt shooting, billygoat looking POS.
Kov should have just knocked Ward out in the first round instead of trying to put on a good show for the fans! Everyone knew Ward was dirty!!! At the end of the day Kov is to blame for his loss, not Ward! If you leave your keys in your car, unlocked in a neighborhood you know is bad and your car ends up stolen, that's your fault!
Andre Ward has been deducted points vs Sullivan Barrera and Edwin Rodriguez I disagree about Ward winning 10/10 the two of them fighting. I had Kov winning the first fight and I doubt he would get robbed in that instance every single time, but I also had Kov winning this fight until the stoppage and 2 of judges had it for Ward so you could be right about that.
I'm not saying that I think Ward would win 10/10, but the end result will say it. I think they are completely evenly matched fighters. But I think Ward is always going to do everything in his power - legal or not - to win and is always going to have the deck stacked so far in his favor that Kovalev would have to decisively (ie ko/tko) Ward to ever win, but I don't think he will ever put anywhere enough into it to get that result.
And I think Kovalev is a beta-made b!tch who will always leave something on the plate to point to after he loses as the reason why he lost. And he's mentally weak as f%#@
He got deducted a point when he cracked Sullivan Barrera in his weapon area with a vicious low blow and Jack Reiss deducted 2 points of both him and Edwin Rodriguez. But that was a make up point from Reiss to show he wasn't on the take when he reffed CoWard against Kessler, a fight in which the disgusting ''Devout Christian'' CoWard should've been DQ'd. Penalizing both of them wasn't really penalizing CoWard at all. Have to be smarter than that Jack or should I say Mr ''I saw 5 accidental or was it unintentional headbutts'' (contrary to the lies his fans tell, there were more than that too) He's been doing all this **** since he was an amateur too. One of his amateur bouts with a guy named Rommel Rene mysteriously vanished from Rene's YT page when CoWard started getting a bit more better known. His cheating in it was absolutely outrageous. Absolutely shameful with a capital S. Watch it all if you have time but from the 15:46 mark you can see how CoWard nabbed himself a place in the Olympic final. He literally spent half the fight holding. This content is protected
Haha, had to do something halfway through and didn't want to start over again but didnt go back and read what I typed. Just read it all now. For the record, I dislike Ward as a fighter and neutral on him as a person. Dislike Kova as a person and neutral on him as a fighter. But I respect Ward's will to win while I think Kova's character is beta and shameful.
Ward is rough and tough. He gives as good as he gets and does very little complaining. He is not a dirty fighter. People try and make him out to be a dirty fighter because he beats their chosen fighters and they feel that they need a reason to justify the loss. Take the Kovalev fight. When Kovalev turned his back Ward didn't go after him. He waited until he turned around and seen that he was ok. The same thing when Kovalev acted like he was hit low and Weeks said no and instructed Ward to continue, Ward didn't go right at Kovalev, he waited until Kovalev was ready. Now he's no saint but he ain't no dirty fighter.
OK. I can partially buy this. None of us truly know what runs through a fighter's head besides the fighter, but where there is smoke there is usually fire, and there is a lot of smoke out there spanning a long time in regards to Ward as a dirty fighter. Maybe some of it is accidental and coincidence - or even all of it - and he is "rough and tough" but I personally believe he has intentionally fouled and fought dirty at points in his career to gain an advantage in fights and win them that he may not have won. I could certainly be wrong though.
Regardless of whether he is dirty or not, he effing goes for broke and doesn't leave anything inside the ring and will do whatever he has to do to win - which imo is respectable, especially as opposed to kova always complaining. If you want something bad enough- go and take it.
I hear you but a fighters actions make manifest what's in their heads. I can't comment on all his fights because I haven't seen them all. What I will say is that the ones I saw never gave me reason to believe him to be an intentional fouler. What I won't do is rely on somebody's highlights to prove that to me because other people's highlights are gleaned to support their agendas. I believe that in the heat of the moment any fighter is capable of fouling. It should be checked by the ref but it happens.
