For those saying Ward v Kovalev was close...... (and I don`t accept it was!) whatever happened to the old boxing adage that the challenger HAD TO TAKE THE TITLE from the champion. Anyone here thingk Ward TOOK the title from Kovalev??
That adage was just something old timers used to repeat. If a Challenger wins buy a single point, they get the belt.
Lance is correct. I scored it 116-111 for Kovalev (8 rds to 4) and felt he won when taking into account the fight as a whole, not scoring by rounds.
Yes, he did TAKE the titles from Kovalev. Your definition of "take" is going all-out reckless mode, face front and getting KO'd in the process. My definition of "take" is overcoming adversity and adapting.
Disagree with you there bruh. It was definitely a close fight. To answer your question... NO . Ward did not take the titles from Kovalev . Not at all . It was a Bad decision .
That's unfair. If a fighter wins a fight it doesn't matter if it is the challenger or not. It's a stupid rule that rarely ever applies to actual logical judging. It reminds me of Jim Watt and Nick Halling saying a British fighter should win the round simply because the crowd cheered harder.
As you correctly identify it's an adage and not a bona fide rule used to score a fight by judges and, therefore, irrelevant.
Want to know what's consistent? Whether people scored it for Kovalev or Ward, the rounds are always different. Tells you everything you need to know. No robbery, just a close fight and a bunch of people who score aggression and think they can't be wrong.
