Was the Kovalev-Ward 2 fight rigged vs Sergey?

I thought Kovalev won the 1st match with room to spare. That being said, I thought he had a lead in the 2nd fight as well but he didn't look to fresh especially after being rocked to his boots.
Ward went berserk after that little hint of blood wafted in the air and all Kovalev could do was cower away from the man he was "going to ruin"

 

It was slightly skewed against him + incompetence all around

 

Something was off all around. Sergey was gassing really early like his conditioning was off, so maybe there was just something wrong with his body and he was unusually sensitive to body shots. But I've seen hundreds of fights and I've never seen anyone react that way to body shots. He wasn't grabbing his nuts like you'd expect from a low blow, but the punches looked low, he said they were low, and that's what fits with what I saw the best. Some people said he was in bad condition and looking for a way out of the fight, but that doesn't make much sense since he was up on the scorecards. Really, the problem was all on Weeks for bad reffing, not calling the fouls, and stopping the fight prematurely.

 

Those who hold this mistake view, have never fought in their lives. When you get hit in the body you get winded and you do not scream out in pain. This is simply due to the effect of the punch causing a muscle spasm within diaphragm which inadvertently knocks rhythmic breathing out of sync.

When Kovalev was hit low in the fight, he is seen literally screaming in pain. That is impossible to do if one is truly hit in the stomach region.

 

Hello,everyone.My first post.I believe the odds were stacked against Kovalev from the word go.Here's a point.As the fighters take their instructions from Weeks before the start,Weeks is clearly seen showing them what is legal and whats low,actually pointing on Kovalevs waistband,so when during the fight were the rules changed.Say whatever,the consensus among neutral fans is that those low blows were indeed not sporting.

 

Let's imagine we flipped all this around.
Kovalev-ward 1 was held in Russia, Kovalev wins by UD even though most boxing fans had Ward winning clearly. A rematch is demanded. Kovalev excepts as long as he's guaranteed his 60 billion rubles. Ward is guaranteed nothing. Just a weak percentage of pay per view numbers.
The three judges assigned for the fight are Russian. So is the referee

Fight night comes.

Kovalev enters the ring with a bad case of back acne. As the fight commences it's clear kovalev seems physically stronger on the inside despite being the 'smaller' man at the weight.
Ward is boxing beautifully , controlling the fight with his superior jab and constantly moving forward to initiate exchanges. Kovalev with a reputation of being a dirty fighter consistently uses ward's balls as target practice.
Kovalev who has never been known as a heavy puncher at super middle stuns ward with a head shot because ward is too concerned about his future family plans.
Kovalev goes in for the kill by repeatedly hitting ward with clear foul low blows.
Ward has cleared his head but the Russian referee stops the fight.

 

I'm not a boxer, but I have been been punched in the stomach and had the wind knocked out of me. I'm not sure why that matters though, since I agree with you that the shots looked low and weren't legal body punches. However, I didn't see Kovalev "scream" either. He was acting kind of funny, like he was trying not to complain and suck it up instead of looking like a whiner.

The way Kovalev reacted didn't look like this:

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It looked more like this:

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But I don't know why you are disputing that Kovalev looked tired. He was tired before all the lowblows, unusually tired, noticeably since like the fourth round. Ward on the other hand hardly broke a sweat and looked fresh as a daisy. You could hear Jones and Lampley commenting on it. Ward's shots were more crisp and had more snap on them while Kovalev seemed to be pushing his like he was moving through mud. He was probably already having stamina issues when the lowblows chopped the legs out from under him and finished him off.

 

Who cares so long as AndreWard wins rights because he won a medal for Murica. Your naive if you think boxing has anything to do witih skill, its all about getting that W even if it means loading up your gloves.

People who think that way are such beautiful people!

 

JayZ paid off two of the judges and the ref. Anyone who doesn't see that is extremely naive.

Kathy Duva is the most naive person on Earth for not predicting the set-up in the first fight and then not predicting the set-up in the rematch.

Remember the old saying:
Fool me once - shame on you. Fool me twice - shame on me.

 

Ward didn't look physically smaller or weaker than Ward in this second fight. Neither did he seem reluctant to mix it up as he had during the first fight. Neither were Ward's attacks comparable in strength to that of first fight. He seemed like a entirely different fighter. Unafraid to get hit, bigger, faster stronger.

This reminds me of the Pacman fight where his opponent came in looking larger far more muscular far more athletic and confident than during their previous encounters and knocked Pac out.

As for the legitimacy or authenticity of this fight it does have its perplexing features such as ref bias and Kov's calm acceptance of the verdict.

 

Tony Weeks the ref is usually a very good ref and just made a series of mistakes. It happens from time to time. It usually doesn't happen on the big stage in front of the world. His track record in 600 fights is pretty good. He just screwed the pooch this time.

Dave Moretti is a ****ing disgrace and shouldn't ever judge a boxing match again. He had Pacquiao vs Vargas almost even, gave Cotto no credit in his fight against Canelo, gave Berto too much credit against Mayweather, scored May/Pac 118-110, scored Pac/Marquez 3 for Pac, scored Canelo/Lara for Canelo, and heavily favored Mayweather in his first fight with Maidana. That is strike seven for this vato. In Mexican baseball that means you're out!

This Glenn Feldman is another incompetent. He scored Gonzalez vs Rungvisai for Rungvisai. He scored the DeGale/Badou Jack fight for Degale, and he had Canelo ahead of Khan. What's worse, he's on a lot of the same cards as Moretti and Julie Lederman and that's a recipe for bad decisions.

Never ascribe to malice that which can be ascribed to ignorance. There's actually very little real corruption or racism in America, at least compared to the rest of the world. However, that doesn't mean that people don't perceive things to be worse than they actually are. There is a gap between perception and reality as you can see by a quick perusal of the Global integrity Index or Bribe Payers Index where we are at 10th place internationally as opposed to the Corruption Perceptions Index where we are number 18.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bribe_Payers_Index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

The same thing happens with crime. Crime has actually been steadily going down for years but most people think it's going up. You just have to consult Pew Research polls to find that out. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tan...s-of-crime-continue-to-conflict-with-reality/

 

I finally re-watched Ward-Kovalev II. (This time without the drinking and people shouting to blur the reality) It was a close fight, and a decent fight for the most part. Both men exhibited skill and strategy. It was certainly not a legendary fight by any means, and quite frankly, I no longer believe either of these men fare too well against the All Time Great fighters at 175. But, through 7 rounds it was a very close fight between two of the better fighters in this era. I had Kovalev barely ahead by one point after 7. (although, once again, his conditioning was clearly failing him before even the midway point of the fight). I won't get into whether Ward was doping, or not, as we are unlikely to find proof of that issue one way or another. I do give credit to Ward for at least adjusting his game plan a bit, and proving he was willing to FIGHT and win the contest by any means necessary. However, the end of that fight is absolutely the result of low blows and not legal body shots. All 3 of those shots landed below the beltline. End of story. Furthermore, even though Weeks may not have seen the low blows to make the right call (giving Kovalev up to 5 minutes to recover, and likely taking a point away from Ward), at the very least he should have given Kovalev a standing 8 count instead of stopping the fight. Body shots can be debilitating. But, fighters often do recover. Especially in a circumstance like this where Kovalev didn't even go down and was taking no punishment to his head. It is just so disappointing to see a close contest like this ended prematurely due to bad officiating by the referee. But, then again, I do put some of the blame on Kovalev as well. Fighters should protect themselves at all times. Sergey's reaction to all of it was confusing, and, certainly played a role in Week's horrendous decision to just stop the fight.

 

No. He complained about legal beltline punches, then got hurt by a big right, started dropping his hands and looking spent against the ropes, Ward hit him low, Weeks missed it since he was so crouched, Kovalev stood there in a prone position not defending himself at all, and Weeks stopped it. People need to stop acting like Ward is some powerhouse with tentacles in every corner of the boxing world. He's never been treated with blatant favoritism.