Ward backed up, but he wasn't backed up. There's a difference. He often fights off the back foot. Most of his work was to the body.
The look on Ward's face waiting for the decision. The sudden change when he heard "new." His first response to Kellerman "...he (Kovalev) is going to feel like he got robbed...." Under why he thought that ? All of the above tell us that Andre knew Sergey won the fight. (And this is the same Andre who said that Tim Bradley was a close friend, but Tim just knew he lost in Pac 1) The boos of the American crowd tell us that they knew who really won the fight. The polls on here and elsewhere tell us the public knew who won. This kind of $hit is not good for boxing as it competes with UFC for fans.
Hell yes he was backed up. You can't say Ward won because he landed more power shots, because Kovalev landed more power shots. You can't say Ward won because he landed more jabs, because Kovalev landed more jabs. You can't say Ward won because he was the aggressor, because Kovalev was the aggressor. You can't say Ward edged it by scoring a knockdown, because Kovalev scored the knockdown. You can't say Ward had the better defense, because Kovalev landed more punches and Kovalev was unmarked while Ward's face was beaten up. WARD LOST IN EVERY WAY YOU SCORE A FIGHT. That fight right there was a bad decision. No way around it.
Kovalev landed 126 of 474 (27%) of his total punches, including 48 of 242 (20%) of his jabs, and 78 of 232 (34%) of his power punches. Ward landed 116 of 337 (34%) of his total punches, 55 of 168 (33%) on jabs, and 61 of 169 (36%) of his power shots. And this is not robbery???
Booker-Perez was a robbery. It was at least feasible for Andre to win this if you give him every close round. I may've had Kovalev edging it by a couple points, but if you cry wolf with "robbery", it loses some of the impact when that card really needs to get played.
And he got dropped. And his face was beaten up. And he was backing up to avoid the punches he still got hit with. Just bad. Ward didn't throw more. He didn't land more. He didn't do anything better. Terrible decision.
Most of Kovalev's numbers came in the first 4 rounds. The fight got further and further from him as each round went on. The fight is scored round by round.
It needs to get played right now. Name all the fights you've seen where the unified world champion loses all his titles via decision after he wins every statistical category of the fight and floors his challenger, as well?
hmmm...the more I think about it, you've got a point. I think I fell victim to how much worse a robbery the preceding fight was. This being less of one doesn't mean it's not one at all.
I've seen worse scores but for a big showcase fight this was kind of bad. They rewarded a spoiler. Lennox Lewis vs Holyfield caused me to leave the sport for 4 years I may doing so again. Tired of these pre-determined outcomes for the home fighter before the bell begins. The undercard bout forewarned of this too with that gift draw.