This content is protected Your opinion on this fight a posteriori? Even if I have somewhat mitigated my opinion on the domination of Kovalev, I maintain that the starting round 10 in the three judges for Ward remains rather disgusting. Note that Kovalev will never be so good afterwards. Was it a simple physical decline or rather that disappointment in scores of what was the fight of his life meant that he never trained so seriously again? Not easy to decide.
Great fight. Both showed tremedous heart and skill through out the fight. Still think Ward eeked it out by a point though.
Well Kovalev's balls have probably returned back to normal after the "Golota" nut punch combo. In all seriousness Kovalev had the first fight handily on my score card It was a tough fight with Andre's rough housing fouling and spoiling tactics. I think this one broke him and was never the same again both mentally as well as the physical decline catching up. I remember reading at the time of his drinking and not training as much and becoming more difficult to work with. Drinking always catches up especially in proffessional sports. you can get away with an amount in your 20's but get to 30's it will catch up.
Robbery big time. Even ward was surprised when he heard the scorecards. Kovalev eon imo clearly 116-112
How many times have 2 P4P fighters fought in the last 5 years? People still argue about Hagler-Leonard.
To be fair you still have people crying over TK06 and that was what 18 years ago. Or what about SRL v Hagler that's nearly 35 yrs. Five years is nothing.
Kovalev deserved the win, no question. But Ward had made great adjustments in the fight and definitely earned a rematch. I liked this fight, too bad the scoring tarnished it
Yes, I think about it almost daily. If I had been punched in the balls like Ward did to Kov I would be speaking in a very high voice right now. I don't use the word robbery much but this was in fact a robbery. It wasn't close. With the knockdown, and outboxing Ward and with Ward's illigal punching for which he should have been deducted a couple points it was a CLEAR victory for K. The significance of this fight cannot be overstated. Ward goes undefeated im his career and Kovelov descends into bottles of Vodkha.
It’s considered a death penalty worthy crime here but I actually had the exact same score as the judges. Great fight nonetheless.