I thought Kovalev won the 10th, Ward bagged the 11th and the 12 was up for grabs. 114-113 Kov was my score, but there were a couple of close rounds that could have swung in Ward's favor on my card. Definitely not a robbery.
I was never greatly impressed by Ward going into this bout however his battle plan here and obviously skills won me over during this bout. Ward adjusted beautifully and used great boxing skill to come away with a close win on my card. The more highly skilled fighter won last night.
My scorecard when watching live: Kovalev 10-9 Kovalev 10-8 Ward 9-10 Even 9-9 Ward 9-10 Kovalev 10-9 Ward 9-10 Ward 9-10 Ward 9-10 Kovalev 10-9 Ward 9-10 Even 9-9 Final score: 6 rounds Ward, 4 rounds Kovalev, 2 rounds even. 113-112 Ward. On second watching, I thought that round 3 and 4 were debatable and depending on how you score them it could be a win for either guy. Perhaps Kovalev even deserved it, but I'm not bothered by the verdict.
Don't care to score it, but an amusing thing I read on one Russian site. One official judge from European Boxing Union (EBU), while watching the bout on TV, scored the bout 119-110 for Kovalyov. If official judges are scoring fights like that, in Europe...
I had it 115-112 Kovelav but many close rounds that could've gone either way so have no problem with people saying Ward won
7-5 Kovalev for me. Plus a knockdown makes it 115-112 I gave him 5 of first six rounds. Also gave him the 10th and 12th. 12th was close and could of gone either way. Other rounds went to Ward but the round I gave him in first half of bout was Close and could of went to Kov.
I don't feel like Ward was ever really in charge of the fight, or putting in significant work. At times he landed some hard jabs, but Kovalev would quickly neutralize anything coming behind it with his power punching. But Ward deserves tremendous credit for getting up from that knockdown, and getting back into the fight.
I had 7-5 Kovalev 115-112. I've gone over it in several threads. I was greatly impressed by Ward's ability to recover, adapt and get gritty to make it a competitive fight. However I believe he lost. Clearly. I do believe he will win a rematch as he improved greatly in second half of fight. Why Kovalev won for me without getting into individual round by round scoring, Is he was the aggressor, he landed more punches. He landed clearly the harder punches. He scored the knockdown and he was the champ. Ward retreated and grabbed and pot shotted. The fact I gave him 5 rounds is a testament to how good he is at upsetting rhythm. Just wasn't enough I think an argument can be made Kovalev swept the first 6 rounds. I gave him 5 of them plus the 10th and the 12th which was razor close.