Bending at the waist is barely penalized. Kovalev hadn't dipped too low until the last shots. The final punches from Ward were without a doubt low.
I only watched it live and I had it 114-113 Ward. I can’t remember how I scored round 10 but my recollection is Kovalev did very little in the second half of the fight and allowed Ward to win rounds just by doing a little bit more. Come to find that my scorecard makes me a bad and evil person. Tough job being a boxing fan. Maybe I’ll score it again some time soon, I’ll probably be able to find another 1-2 rounds for Kovalev if I try.
At the very least Kovalev should have gotten a draw. Ward did very well in the second half of the fight but I had Kovalev fairly comfortably winning by a few points. It was a competitive fight and no way was it a monumental robbery, but Kovalev got screwed. That "loss" and his drinking really did him in. I feel bad for the guy because in some ways I can identify with him.
I think fighters from east need to learn how to handle this situation. Draw referee's attention, and if he does nothing, just punch Ward back in the balls even harder, like mexicans do.
I dunno Golota seemed to have the old nut punch honed in. On a serious note your correct Ward is an old school fighter like Hopkins who will try and get away with dirty tactics to put you off your game. A lot of the old school boxers used to be really dirty because there wasn't instant hi def replay back then and referee's where a little inconsistant with applying the rules.
It always It always baffles me when a fighter is on the receiving end of rough house tactics and doesn't get dirty himself. Kov clearly won this fight but at the same time Ward found out he could be bullied and that set the tone for the second.
I agree fully. people are oportunists in nature and if someone who has a tendency to bully and not get challanged will lean into that. Ward did that with Kessler with headbutting and he manhandled Froch. Although he wasn't known for ko power I think he was generally physically stronger than the opposition. The other thing is culture I would think that behaviour in the amateurs would get you in trouble pretty quickly so for eastern europeans who had an extensive amateur backround would not be used to those kind of tactics. Some other cultures cheating even ped use is seen very differently to say the UK where sportsmanship is considered more important. That doesn't mean individuals don't cheat it means the overall culture it is seen in a bad light.
That is a feel-good statement. Many bullies are fully capable of rising to the occasion. Kovalev's conditioning was always so-so, he didn't know how to shut down Ward's rough-handling and body punching. I wouldn't say he is mentally weak.
