The Two punches that hurt Kovalev with 1:45 left in the 8th round were not low

Since there's still a lot of confusion over exactly which of Ward's punches were low and which weren't, I think it's important to point out that the two punches that REALLY hurt Kovalev in the 8th round, which was before the big straight right hand to the head, were two hooks (a right then a left) by Ward with 1:45 left in the round.

Lets be clear : These two punches were directly square in the middle of the belt-line, 100% legal punches. These were the two punches that sent Kovalev reeling back into the ropes, hunched over in agony. Ward then stopped punching, looked at Weeks as if to say "are you going to call those low"? Weeks did not call them low and motioned for Ward to continue to fight.

It's important to point out that Kovalev got a few seconds of a breather there even though the punches weren't low blows. So lets be 100% clear as to what caused Kovalev trouble. Kovalev was hurt badly by those two body punches that landed directly in the center of the belt-line. No doubt about it those were legal blows. After that point, Kovalev was out on his feet in serious trouble, and then moments later Ward landed the devastating right hand.

So lets not act like Ward hurt Kovalev with low blows. Ward hurt Kovalev badly in the 8th round with CLEARLY LEGAL PUNCHES.

 

I just rewatched the fight on my DVR. There were two moments where Kovalev reacted to what appeared to be low blows before the 8th round. The first was in the 2nd round. Weeks did in fact give Kovalev time to rest there, he stopped the fight and said to Ward to "keep em up". The commentators noted that this particular punch did not have any mustard on it. Essentially it appeared to be a very light punch, it landed on the bottom half of the belt line. I wouldn't quantify this one as low, and it wasn't hard at all. I'm still trying to understand why Kovalev reacted to this one like he was hurt, it barely had any force on it. But Weeks did in fact stop the fight and gave Kovalev 5 minutes, even though it had very little force and wasn't clearly low. It landed on the belt line. So he did acknowledge it was on the belt, and he gave Kov sufficient time there.

Then the next time Kov reacted to a low blow was in the 7th round. This is something that you need to take another look at to understand what happened.

You may have missed this but with 0:54 remaining in the round, Kovalev actually landed a low blow on Andre Ward. It was a jab that appeared to land on Andre Ward's left thigh south the border! ! Then after landing that, Kov grabs on to Ward and proceeds to throw a rabbit punch that lands directly on the back of Ward's head. (Kov has been throwing rabbit punches all night in the clinch, but this was a particular bad situation here because Kovalev throws a low blow jab, then grabs Ward, then follows that up with a rabbit punch)

SO what does Ward do? He retaliates with a light left uppercut that appears to land on the lower part of the belt-line. It had very little power on it, and it was very clearly a reaction to the low-blow / rabbit punch combo that Kovalev threw! Weeks actually appeared to say "keep em up" but didn't rule that punch low, and you're right he did not give Kovalev time there.

On the replay after the round was over, though the view was partially blocked by Ward's body, it did appear to hit right at the lower edge of the belt-line. (the white belt-line part of Kov's trunks, not the black part, it appear to land right below the red K on Kov's belt-line)

So it's very important to understand first that this was not clearly a low blow. It landed on the lower part of Kov's white belt-line. But more important, it came as a retaliation to what were two worse fouls in my estamination, which was Kovalev out of nowhere (not in the clinch) throwing a very low jab that appeared to land below Ward's belt-line, and then a very hard rabbit punch that snapped forward Ward's head. (reminded me one of of BHop's rabbit punches that caused RJJ to retaliate in the rematch)

You look at this situation int he final minute of the 7th round with 54 seconds left in the round, and this was not Ward fighting Dirty. On the contrary, this was Kovalev fighting dirty with that low blow hard rabbit punch combo, followed by a light left uppercut by Ward to the belt-line. Weeks didn't give Kov time to recover, because not only was it not a low blow, but Kovalev did two fouls right before that !

Kov was carrying on as if he was hit low but Weeks did not buy it, and did not give Kov any time to rest. He signaled for the match to continue.

 

Good of you to link that and to show Kovalev's jab that started it. Now it's hard to see where that jab landed, as the replay at the end of the round did not show this jab from Kovalev, but from the live view it appeard to land on Ward's belt-line. So basically Kov's jab which started all of it was about as bad if not worse than Ward's retaliatory light left upper to the belt-line. But in between those was an awful, intentional hard rabbit punch by Kovalev.

In that exchange, Kovalev clearly had the worse foul out of those 3 punches. (the rabbit punch) Ward's light belt-line upper was essentially a retaliation from that rabbit punch. So lets not act like Ward was fighting dirty there or that it was a low blow that Weeks should have gave Kovalev 5 minutes for. If anything Weeks should have warned Kovalev for his belt-line jab and especially the hard rabbit punch that followed!

 

What about Kov's jab to the belt-line, followed by a hard rabbit punch? ? Are you just gonna ignore that those happened first? LOL Ward retaliated with a light left uppercut that hit the belt-line. Kovalev's rabbit punch was way worse than that belt-line punch!

 

WTF are you talkin about ? ? Ward had not landed any low blows when Kov committed those fouls in the 7th round. In round 2 Weeks ruled one of Ward's shots low, and gave Kov 5 minutes, but replays show that was a very light belt-line punch. Kovalev had been rabbit punching all night.

And we're not talking about how fair Kovalev had been fighting over the last 5 years. We're talking about how he was fighting IN THIS FRICKIN FIGHT. Kovalev was fighting more dirty than Ward PERIOD. And frankly his unprofessional attitude in the press conferences and him saying he's gonna kick Ward's ass and all this crap sounds like somebody who's mad, angry and planning on fighting dirty. This is such BS to sit here and cry about how Ward's such a dirty fighter. Ward didn't fight dirty at all. He landed punches on Kovalev's belt-line which are legal punches. Kovalev was fighting dirty with belt-line jabs and hard rabbit punches couldn't take Ward's body punches and wanted out of the fight.