Its statisically highly unlikely that Ward won on 3 scorecards without bias...

There was plenty of bias, no doubt about it. Ward is afraid of the rematch clause and will have to be sued, but Ward will lose and be forced to fight Kovalev, this time Kovalev will win again, only by knockout!!!

 

I don't think it is really that unlikely. It was a close fight. I had Kovalev winning but scored two rounds even. If the judges gave both even rounds to Ward, that's the only way he could have won, and they did. It's definitely biased judging, but not in the way that most people are saying. It has nothing to do with bribery, nationalism, or race but in how boxing fans have split into two opposing camps. You have the Mayweather defensive hit and don't get hit lovers, and then you have the Pacquiao seek and destroy enthusiasts. Those camps were inherited by Ward and Golovkin respectively. Those three judges just happen to be people who are fans of the Mayweather/Ward style and so they judge based on slightly different criteria than the Pacquiao/Golovkin people.

They also might have bought into the hype surrounding Ward and seen what they expected to see. Ward was a 5 to 1 favorite going into the fight. He took over in the second half and you know that judges give the bigger star the benefit of the doubt in close rounds. Plus, Ward had the added advantage of scoring momentum. Once a judge sees a fighter take two rounds in a row they are even more likely to give subsequent rounds to the fighter. It's lazy thinking but super common. That's why they were able to ignore the good work Kovalev did in the 10th. They were watching Ward's attempt to showboat and bolo punch. It didn't much matter that every time he tried to bolo Kovalev jabbed him in the face. They were convinced by his confident swagger that he must be putting on a clinic and was in total control. It's dumb, but that's just how some people think. If you act like you are winning you can fool some people into believing you.

It's not statistically unlikely for judges to misread a fight by two points, which is what happened. We don't all have the same judging criteria or point of view, so you get a variety of interpretations. When Canelo fought Lara the swing went the other way. That's just boxing.

Some advice for boxers. Don't leave it in the judges hands. Point fighting is for pussies. Go out there and knock the guy out. If you can't knock them out, don't let it be close. Leave no doubt in anybody's mind who the superior fighter is. Kovalev could have done more. That wasn't one of his better performances. He was too cautious, didn't cut off the ring enough, or let his hands go. He also gassed early which shows he should have trained for more stamina in camp.

 

I'd say that there were 4 close rounds. I scored 3 and 5 even with 6 going close to Kovalev and 12 going close to Ward.

R1 10-9 Kovalev Kovalev being more aggressive landing slightly more.
R2 10-8 Kovalev Kovalev knocks Ward down
R3 even
R4 10-9 Kovalev couple jabs and aggression
R5 even
R6 Kovalev 10-9 close
R7 Ward 10-9
R8 Ward 10-9
R9 Ward 10-9
R10 Kovalev 10-9 similar number of punches landed Kovalevs were harder. Ward trying unsuccessfully to bolo punch.
R11 Ward 10-9
R12 Ward 10-9 close
6K 5W 2E