Andre Ward vs. Ray Robinson

And how you hoped the fight would turn out is irrelevant also. It was scored. Officially. By officially appointed judges. And Kovalev was the more popular and higher revenue fighter, so if they were going to shell out for anyone it would have been him

 

Oh...I thought this was a H2H matchup thread?

 

Ward did well, but to little too late. I had Kovalev by about 3 points. Kovalev worked hard for his belts, he didnt deserve to have them stolen. That was a slap in the face to the foreigner, who resides in the USA. They had plans to rob GGG as well.

 

Thinking Ward but would love to be wrong.

 

Kovalev took his foot off the gas and did it surprisingly early on. He shut down mentally once he realized he couldn't put Ward away.
Kovalev tried to coast his way till the end while Ward was fighting to the finish.
Kovalev surrended those belts away rather than lay it all on the line to defend them.

 

Far bigger gap between Ward`s power and Rocky`s compared to the gap between Ward`s punch and Robinson`s, Marciano would have destroyed everybody Ward ever fought, Ward would not have stopped every fighter Ray fought.

 

Well obviously that is the way you see it, to me, it was a clear win for Kovalev, he even won rounds later in the fight. Maybe 7-5 plus the knockdown. If i remember right kovalev was even ahead in the 2nd fight. It wasn't that difficult for Kovalev to win rounds vs Ward.

 

Yeah it's all subjective in a close fight, that's why I would never claim it to be a robbery if it went either way.
Me personally, taking all things into consideration like KDs and all, I tend to favor the fighter who closed stronger over the last half.

I have never rewatched either fight, I only watched them live. May be I should sit down and watch them again and rescore,....but tbh I've never felt the need, as I remember what I saw, and there didn't seem to be any doubt for me in either fight.

Another factor for me: most people were expecting a Kovalev win by KO (not me, but most of the louder voices online), so at that point there is more expectation on the champion to clearly dominate, and for me he never did that.

And trust me, I am a Ward fan purely out of respect only. I never found him likeable or exciting. In truth, I WANTED Kovalev to win that fight, same as I wanted Froch to win...
so my analysis is more than just objective, I was actually rooting for the other guy and Ward ended up winning me over

 

I would bet all my money on Ward. He's just better. Watching them will show you that.

 

No, Robinson was a better finisher, his KO over Fullmer trumps anything Ward did, he was a better combo punched and through vicious hooks, Ward couldn`t fight on te inside the way Ray could.

 

Ward is too big

 

Robinson threw more punches than Ward which would be a factor, his constant jab was something Wrd never faced before. Size could be a factor but Robinson had a slightly longer reach which could negate a size factor, he would out-jab Ward.

 

I'm gonna be controversial and say Ward, because he was naturally bigger.

 

I know what you mean, but there are cruiserweights he could KO, just not ones you've heard of