Personally can't see how Kovalev didn't win that first round, he had Ward wobbled. Otherwise, good card. Was a hard fight to score.
Yeah Lederman is awful he has a huge bias in favour of fighters that come forward, he rewards aggression whether it's effective or not.
When Cotto was forced to go on the backfoot against Mosley and Clottey, he scored it in Cotto's favor, against Canelo and Pac he favored the aggressor. He's a full of **** hypocrite. More like he favors the HBO agenda.
if HBO told harold who to be biased toward I wouldnt be suprised. HBO:"Harold you suck on cotto's nuts tonight. Kellerman im gonna need you to jump on clottey's. Lampley, we're gonna need you to say "hard right hand" when the right hand is blocked a few times. Roy Jones just do you".
I agreed with Lederman's card for this fight, but the fact remains that he's just not a consistent scorer. Lederman for the most part over credits the fighter going forward without taking into account the effectiveness of both the aggressor and the counterpuncher. In the case of this fight with Kovalev and Ward, Kovalev happened to score with effective punches, but I'm inclined to believe he'd have given Kovalev the rounds even if he hadn't been scoring with effective punches strictly on the bases that he was the fighter going forward. In all honesty, Lederman has got to be one of the worst judges in boxing history.
I agree with Harold Lederman, 116 - 111 Kovalev.....................all Ward did was run, hold and wrestle............................this is not WWE