I just rewatched the fight, here is the reason for the butts............

It's like when Rocky went to the Soviet Union in Rocky IV and they put him in that crappy log cabin in the middle of no where and he had to train in an old barn with no weights or equipment and Pauley couldn't stand it because there was no TV reception and Adrian didn't care for it much either and then Apollo's old trainer gave Rocky a pep talk and Rocky outran those dirty Russians who were "protecting" him and then he went to the mountaintop and started screaming I don't know what and later in the dressing room there were about 100 dirty russians observing Rocky getting his hands taped (like Rocky would ever really cheat) and the dirty Rusian crowd booed Rocky unmercifully when he made his enterance but later they started to appreciate his spirit and guts and determination until finally they were all cheering him onto victory and Rocky closed with that stirring (if slightly incomprehensible) speech....really, it reminded me almost exactly of that. Except, of course, it wasn't in the Soviet Union. :hi:

 

Kessler couldn't counter Ward and therein lies the problem. Ward was diving in with wreckless abandon because he knew Kessler couldn't pull the trigger. I'm shocked how bad both guys looked. Ward looked amateurish, but Kessler was even worse when he didnt make him pay for coming in like that.