Did Ward Ruin Kovalev's Career?

NO, Lebedev would punch a hole through Kovalev's midsection.

 

This was a lesson learned for Kovalev, never make so much concessions against a cheating hometown fighter like Wart, because you are likely to get screwed in the outcome of the match as well.

 

Ward said he knew he had him the whole time too. Basically all the stuff coming from Kovalev and his team confirmed everything was working. He said he would have been worried if they had been quiet. But he knew they were showing their hand.

 

Damn!

 

Should consider going to Haymon who will get him paid better and would put him in the mix with guys like Beterbiev and Stevenson to cash out

 

Yes the low blows landed on Kovalev started the moment the first fight was signed. They stole Kovs belts, undefeated status, and spot as the true light heavyweight king. That what he had will never come back. The last 5 years has had some of the worst handling, managing, and sportsmanshio I've ever seen.

 

I'm optimistic.
I think he could bounce back.

Because I would imagine Ward is gonna vacate the IBF belt soon because Beterbiev is most likely gonna be the mando for that. Ward want no part of that. So Beterbiev and Kovalev could fight for the IBF title, both guys are ranked 2 and 3.
If Kovalev can beat Beterbiev, he has a belt again and career is back on track.

 

Kovalev and Ward fought twice in 7 months! How did Ward hold up the rematch? As far as big rematches are concerned, they got it done very fast! If Kovalev let Ward in his head, then that's Kovalevs fault for being weak minded and letting his emotions dictate his actions. Ward did what he needed to do to manipulate his opponent.

 

No, he neither ruined nor ended Kovalev's career.

Kovalev is set to fight again on HBO before the end of the year. So his career will continue.

Kovalev out-landed, out-threw, and out-landed-in-power-shots Ward over their two fights. He is widely believed to have been robbed on the scorecards in the first fight. The second fight ended in a controversial stoppage following a low blow.

Not the stuff of a 'ruined' career.

Ward did show Kovalev that there are things to fix in his game, though. And he did add two official losses to Kovalev's ledger, fair or not.

Two examples of an opponent "ruining" a fighter, to me, would be:

- Golota ruining Bowe even though Bowe won both fights
- Chavez ruining Taylor

As far as we know, Ward's effect on Kovalev is nothing like either of the above situations.

 

Exactly. Kovs fans jumped off of Kovs bandwagon and landed right on Beterbievs, lmao.

 

No.

 

Kovalev still achieved a ton, so no. But Ward is the better fighter between the two, especially from a pfp perspective. SK probably deserved the first win, which makes the dominance Ward will have historically a bit unfair, but there's little doubt he is truly better overall. SK can try to position himself for a Stevenson match now and improve (or further erode) his historical rep.

 

Almost everyone knew the fight was rigged, SOB cheated like hell, he had his personal referee, judges and boxing commission and that is so obvious............................so it does not really hurt his career at all, in fact, I would bet on Kovalev in a fair fight where both fighters had to obey the rules and the fight is in neutral territory with neutral judges, referee, and boxing commission, SOB said that neutral judges would not be fair..................that says everything................

 

We don't know until he fights again