Kovalev-Ward: Swing Rounds and Clean Punches

I have nothing against either Kovalev or Ward. I find them equally likable. Neither one has done anything for me to dislike them. On the other hand, I think Trump is a demagogic, lying a-hole who is in over his head but time will prove whether I am right or wrong. I hope I am wrong about Trump being in over his head, for the country's sake.

 

Unfortunately you are preaching to the unconvertable... they've made their minds up, based on an emotional investment in their fighter rather than with the dispassionate detachment you are able to display.

 

Did your view of Ward influence how you called the fight? Maybe just a little?

 

rooting for guys on an emotional level is a little strange IMO. This CST guy freely admits he likes to. Apparently he doesnt like Wards demeanor and thats enough to make him hate on him regularly.

 

Yes, WAY more damage, yet only landed 10 more shots than Ward. OKAY! What about those 137 punches that flew over Ward's head? Defense and ring generalship count in boxing, you know.

 

Stevensons promoter Yvon Michel had an interesting comment.

He said the fight reminded him of pascal/B Hop.First one. Pascal had Hop down twice early in the first 4 rounds. Michel said he basically thought it was in the bag and was even making future plans in his head. He said he was chatting with a bunch of people ringside and it was later in the fight he realized that it had been some time since Pascal had actually won a round. He said it was very similar to that fight.

Its too bad that people are conditioned to think because Ward was down early that the fight was over.

 

Therein lies one of the fundamental issues with the scoring of this fight: everything after round 2 was compared to round 2. When Kovalev doesn't dominate a round he now loses it. Survival is not boxing. You still have to do damage. Plus the way Ward survived was questionable. How much clinching is too much so that it warrants a point deduction? How much foul play? Attempted headbutts? Elbows? Hitting off the clinches? Lifting an opponents leg off the ground and trying to push them over?

Face the facts: giving round 10 or 12 to Ward knowing the score to that point is corruption.

 

* You could flip it around and say Kovalev continued to receive credit for the work he did in round 2 even when the dynamic of the fight had changed. Lederman was giving Kov rounds from Round 7 to 9 at a point when Ward appeared to be in control.

* Ward did damage. Kovalev's nose was bloody and his punches lacked the same snap in the middle rounds, in part due to the body shots that Ward was landing in close. And body shots count.

* Kovalev wasn't an angel, either. He initiated his share of clinches and hit low a couple of times. Ward did his share of grab-and-release, and certainly rough-housed, but he also boxed and fought his way back into the fight after a slow start.

Round 10 should have gone to Kovelev. Round 12 was quite close and while I called it to Kov it could be scored the other way, based on the bookend nature of the round.

 

It is definitely illegal to land anywhere other than the face. The problem is that it's very hard to notice these shots so a lot of fighters get away with it. I remember Walters landed a bomb on Donaire from the side of the head behind the ear but it's just laughably difficult to detect. He was flattened.

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That's got to be illegal but the damage is done lol.


There's got to be a source somewhere lol

EDIT: My comment was unintelligible so I edited it.

 

Sure whatever you say.