Cleverly took a knee strike to the head while he was down

When your going down quicker than a 10 dollar hooker these things tend to happen.

 

Hardly warrants 'strike' if you ask me.

It was Kovalev's fists, not his knee, that did for Nathaniel... :hey

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl


Are you serious?! atsch

 

But carrying Clev to the corner after the 3rd round is ok ?Get the **** out of here!:nut
The ref was an abomination.

 

The ref was bad. He should have been a bit quicker to step in when Cleverly went down.

There could be a case for a DQ, technically, but it would have been very harsh. Cleverly was hit flush though when on his knees (never mind about Kovalev's knee, the punch was the issue). RJJ was DQ'd for something similar.

Maybe Cleverly should have been given 5 minutes to recover because it was basically an illegal shot that did some of the damage.

 

That's for booing national anthem, I hope every british fighter gets treated like that if brittards decide to boo anthem.

 

That wasn't booing, it was merely constructive criticism of the tune.

 

I can't stand it when Brits boo the national anthems and the visiting fighter. So classless. I'm a Brit myself. But like last night, the jokes on them as they didnt go home singing and dancing.

Now on topic, Cleverly was continuously ducking to avoid shots, so when his knee was eventually on the canvas, his head wasn't much lower. Not much you can do about that. I believe kovalev was treading carefully.

 

Cleverly was done by then, There was not 1 second in the fight where cleverly looked like he had a chance. He was nervous, bouncing all over. He could have been given 5 minutes, and then what, no change in the outcome. The first kD and it was over. Once Kovalev hurts you he will keep coming until you fall, the only way to stop him is to hurt him, that is hard to do when bombs are flying.

 

Harsh. It's not the fighters fault.

The punches probably did a lot more damage than the knee.

 

He was bending over and also trying to grab Kovalev around the legs. Kovalev hits so hard, Cleverly probably has a good chin, but like he mentioned I think, this guy hits so hard it rattles your brain. Kovalev raised his game and looked better than ever. Jab, Speed, strength, combinations, power.

 

Cleverly could only go to ground when being hit. Kovalev entitled to hit him in my opinion. The ref gave him a chance by moving him back to the corner at the end of round three.

 

Of course he wasn't entitled to hit him when he was on his knees. The ref was wrong but maybe he mightn't have had to carry him back if Kovalev hadn't landed that last punch.

I don't blame Kovalev but if anyone is to blame its ref.

If a low blow went in at the end of a combination when a fighter was going down or in trouble, he would probably get 5mins to recover.

It wouldn't have made a difference to the result anyway but thats not really the point.