How come the ref didn't dock Ward...

take what out of the fight? rabbit punching?lol rabbit punching isn't some master tactic, its illegal. iv no idea how you complain about kovalev stopping ward from doing that.

 

I saw no rabbit punching.

 

and when kovalev didn't go down, ward came up and pushed him as hard as he could in the chest to still try and take him down. but kovalev was still the better boxer in that whole scenario.

 

yes because kovalev made sure ward couldn't do it, a tactic you just critisized him for

 

I thought the ref did an ok job, but I thought after the fight when Ward and the ref looked to be celebrating together (im not saying they were celebrating together) that people would comment.
Ward does tend to hold in his fights and hold and hit, but against Kovalev wasnt able to do it to the same effect

 

He wasn't attempting to rabbit punch. He focused the attack to the body . And succeeded. Kolavev couldn't do anything other than hold and press him up against the ropes.

 

What about docking Kovalev for his headlocks? Swings and roundabouts...

 

If you come in low you get put in headlocks, thats the name of the game. ward wanted to make the fight messy sloppy and dirty and he wasn't able to do it as much as he liked becuase kovalev was putting him in headlocks. if it wasnt for the headlocks, ward would have had that fight locking more like something you would see at wrestlemania

 

Both fighters have a style which involves wrestling on the inside (like nearly all great boxers), it's just Kovalev has been so dominant in his previous fights against boxers who were cautious of his power and not taking the exchanges inside, we've not seen as much from him in the past. But Krusher used constant headlocks to nullify Ward when he got up close, and I suspect this tired out Krusher more than it did Ward. He's not used to highly physical fights and this drained him, so much so, his pace slowed until he managed a late rally.

But anyone claiming it was Ward alone who used the dark arts on the inside is being disingenuous. And as Kovalev said - unwisely - prior to the fight, he wanted a street fight. He got what he asked for...

 

So Krusher's headlocks are justified but Ward's physical inside work was not? Can't have it both ways... not in a street fight. Kovalev called for this in one of the most unwise pre-fight comments I've heard in a long time. Be careful what you wish for...

 

Early on in the fight I would agree he held on and used the tactic of ducking below the waist as Kovalev was moving forward and that resulted in him being told a number of times not to press down on the back of Andre's neck; but it became evident that both of them were using similar spoiling tactic as the fight progressed!

 

where did i say kovalevs headlocks were due to wards phsical inside work? i said they were a result of ward coming in low and the danger of ward headbutting

fact is kovalev is almost always invloved in very clean fights, ward on the other hand has been invloved in tons of nasty messy fights, only reason this fight was messy was because thats what ward wanted

 

And if you read carefully I didn't say you did. The exact phrase I used was 'So Krusher's headlocks are justified but Ward's physical inside work was not?'. In no way can you conclude from this that I was implying the headlocks were due to Ward's inside work, I was merely pointing out they were both 'guilty' of boxing's dark arts in their STREET FIGHT.

I agree in past fights, Krusher's work had been much cleaner but that was partly due to opponents not wishing to engage up close, whereas Ward chose to go into the trenches and in doing so - importantly when judging a fight - Ward making Kovalev fight his fight. Actually the point you made is valid in terms of Krusher being made to adapt his style by Ward's gameplan and, of course, ring generalship is one of the criteria judges use to score fights. Inadvertently, you've raised a point which backs the judge's decision to score in favour of Ward.

 

Yeah after the knock down he came out t in round three and just flew into SK as if to say **** the boxing can we just wrestle instead,by no means was it the worst of Ward I've seen in that respect but what gets me is he need to do it in the first place,isn't he good enough to box his way to win,I think he is but he's gotten so used to it in the past he falls back into it.

I'm not Ward hater by the way and have already given him credit for an amazing fight back after his knock down but to all Ward fans on here what would everyone say if GGG fought that way or Canelo infact name one other well known guy other than Wlad who would be applauded for pot shorting and holding for twelve rounds?its unnatractive to watch though I concede it's clever as it pinches him rounds and before you know it the fights over.

 

ward didn't go into the trenches though, going into the trenches imo is to go on the inside and look to trade, ward didn't want to do that he jsut wanted to turn the fight into an messy wrestling match where he could rob rounds jsut by making the fight sloppy.

you can say kovalev boxed wards fight, you can also say he outboxed him and outjabbed him at he;s own game.

kovalev won he's rounds very cleanly while the only way ward got the decision is by giving him all the close rounds. kovalev outlanded ward to the head about 2-1. that doesn't look like the stats of a man who got outboxed