Excuses for Ward's blatant cheating are pathetic. What could have happened is irrelevant here really. The rules are there to be followed, if you can't follow them then you should be disqualified. I said the same about Jon Jones using those elbows in MMA. The rules are rules. You can't just do illegal things all the time because you "would have won anyway". So if I win 2 rounds against someone I can just kick him in the nuts in the 3rd because **** him? It doesn't work this way. We were robbed of a great finish of the fight because Ward wasn't secure enough to try to beat Kovalev fair and square. The way he was repeatedly going to the balls shows this. A true fighter would go to the head in his place, following his fighter's instinct. The fact that Ward deliberately went for low blows in such situation shows that this was something premeditated and planned. You have to understand that these EE fighters can't use these techniques when they are guests in the USA. Let's say Kovalev decided to box like that since the beginning of his career. He would get disqualified like 3 times before he had 20 fights and his career would be over. Yet Ward was allowed to develop and hone this "craft" because he was this privileged golden medalist in his home country. That's the main reason why you don't see EE fighters fighting dirty and on the inside. They just can't afford to try to hone this "honorable" craft because they would get disqualified somewhere along their way to the top or would have points deducted regularly. This is a special style for privileged American kids. It's a bit like being a child of some important rich lawyer.
I lost a lot of respect for Ward today. Even though I was cheering for Kovalev I was expecting that in the case that Ward wins I'm going to see this great boxer, this "Picasso" of boxing who is going to paint a masterpiece and neutralize his opponent in a clean, slick way. His loud mouth camp was predicting things like that. I genuinely thought I'm going to see this great boxing intellect making adjustments and making it hard for Kovalev. And what did I see? A merely decent boxer that has to rely on clinching like a madman and low blows. There was nothing great in his performance. I know that he has always been dirty but he had much cleaner performances in the past.
His tactics are more then questionable very often but he get away with it with his american referess an judges. The Froch fight in 2011 was the last fight Ward hadn't 3 american judges and an amercian refree to help him
Klitschko was allowed to clinch Bryant Jennings like a lover all night long in New York. Also, I recall Carl Froch using some very unorthodox tactics when he got a decision against Dirrell in the UK during the super six. In terms of robberies we have the examples of Valuev vs Holyfield in Switzerland. Ottke vs Reid in Germany. Burns vs Beltran in the UK. Murata vs N'Jikam in Japan. Looking at Britain there were some early stoppages like Degale vs Gonzalez. Chisora supposedly got early stoppages against Malik Scott and Edmund Gerber. Khytrov and Savon got shafted at the British Olympics in 2012. Calzaghe got some early TKOs. Fury vs Firtha was ridiculous since Firtha wasn't even hurt and was standing in the middle of the ring. Bellew vs McKenzie 1 was a premature stoppage. Khan vs McCloskey. Fury vs Pajkic. As far as bad referees go Ian John Lewis appears to be Britain's Laurence Cole.
He should have give it back instead of moaning like a girl. He clearly doesn't handle adversity like a true great champion. He never even protested the stoppage. He's ok when everything's going for him, but he lacks heart when things are going against him. He's been found out.
He went to america with no money, no promoter , nothing. He had his first 20 fights for FREE! Despite his elite talent, he found it very hard to find a promoter. He's had everything against him in the privileged American boxing world If he didn't have heart, he wouldn't have achieved what he's achieved, he would have gave up and gone back to Russia during those tough years.
I could not see Kovalev' s naval because his shorts were high. That means anything on the belt and just below the belt would be legal for the referee. I guess Kovalev pulls trunks up to hide his weakspot.
ward won it, but should have been docked a point for the 2 low blows. However Ward was going to win - the last low blow was when kovalev was out of it. Ward lost some fans today for using dirty tactic on a man going down - but I guess he felt justified to win by any means since he had the odds against him. Personally I feel fair to call that a Ward win by tko, and the last one a draw.
True. But overall the sport is still based in Las Vegas, and anyone other than the tiny guys and cruiserweights and heavyweights must still follow Scmellings logic of coming to the US to fight the best.
I actually prefer British promotions. Joshua Klitschko was a better presentation BY FAR than anything I've ever seen in the US, so was Spence vs Brook. My point is the US is still the Capitol, if Joshua wants to be mentioned in the same sentence as Lewis and Tyson and Ali he will need to come fight in America, as Klitschko did. No disrespect to England or British fighters is intended at all. I'm just stating the objective truth.