The fight was stopped because of an illegal punch, wether kovalev was on his way out anyway is irrelevant. I feel for kovalev.
There was a punch or two earlier in the fight that definitely strayed a bit, prompting Weeks to briefly halt the action on one occasion... but the series of shots that Ward landed at around 1:47 in the 8th (that initially sent Kovalev into the ropes) were clearly right on the beltline. Those particular shots looked legal to me and Kov was badly hurt by them. This was prior to the right hand upstairs, which also clearly had him disheveled a few seconds later. Kov just didn't like the body work at all in general... and he also didn't initially protest the fight being stopped during his postfight interview w/Kellerman. That was "telling" in my opinion. He knew the fight was over. No bias here. No agendas. Just my honest perspective.
First let me say I'm an American, because where your from seems to matter a great deal on here these days.. I've been on this site since it's creation basically. I was rooting hard for Kovalev I really wanted him to destroy Ward, so let's get that out front. Ive watched boxing live since the 80's so I've watched more fights that I can count. Plus being as boxing has always been a passion you'd be hard pressed to find a fight in boxing history that was significant that I've not watched and I watched a great deal of insignificant flights as well.. Watching this fight live last night, with a few friends who were also rooting for Kovalev ( Quick shout out to the wife who for over 20 years has always allowed me to watch these and any fights why she handles the children although a lot of times they're in bed anyway) so to the fight I felt like Kovalev was winning the fight over the first half, thats was what I saw.. I thought he was obviously throwing more punches, being the aggressor, and landing most of the better punches that's what I thought was happening.. But he tired, maybe a combination of how many punches he had thrown, The difficult and exhausting nature of the fight and how hard and physical a fight Andre Ward was making it for him.. A combination of the pace of the fight and the draining nature that it is to fight Andre Ward ..Now Was he hit low, kinda but he's wearing a cup and One of the body shots that might have been low earlier was a tap and Kovalev reacted very emotionally so I said in the round before the stoppage to my friends maybe he's just hurting Kovalev to the body, and these aren't necessarily that low he just breaking him down and really hurting him to the body... And bingo next round Ward closed the show. Kovalev looked done to me, he looked to have nothing left, when he went down and the fight was stopped he did not protest the stoppage immediately he seemed completely fine with the fight being stopped. The first view of his face after he had went down looked like to me like the look of a beaten fighter. To me he looked like he wanted no more . I'm not sure who said it but the phrase "fatigue makes cowards of us all" that's it Kovalev to me was gassed, got shook with that right hand and then was getting hurt badly to the body. I thought he won the first fight, but I think he lost this one fair and square. I watched with three other guys, three of us agreed on the stoppage and the other one was losing his mind and said it was one of the worst stoppages he had ever seen so it's an objective sport and everybody has an opinion. But in my eyes I come out on the other side being very impressed that Andre Ward was basically able to do the one thing that I didn't think was possible in this fight if there was one outcome that I didn't think was possible it was Ward winning by stoppage. But he did props to him
This comment sums up my views on that article: 'Kovalev looked gassed in 6. It was a huge right hand from Ward in the seventh and kovalev did not want to be there. The low blows were borderline. The ref should have counted and not stopped the fight but the result was inevitable.' Although I add that it wasn't just simply Kovalev gassing, it was also Ward's work getting to Kov a bit more but also Kov unable to have the output required to outpoint Ward.
I know what I saw. There was a clinch in the 7th with Ward having his forehead into Kov's face, and he hit him in the dick. That moment changed the entire fight. The completely put Kovalev off his game.
I agree To me it taints what should and could have been the TKO of the year. Poor job by Tony but still an impressive display of ring work from Ward. He broke Krusher down quickly and yeah the boarder line and spot on low blows helped seal the deal as much as Ward's Boxing IQ and ability to adapt and conquer
