I just rewatched this fight. What a masterful performance from Andre Ward. He sits on his punches early to keep Kovalev (prime Kovalev, mind you) at bay and then methodically imposes his will and makes Kovalev wilt. That Ward jab in the early rounds is so strong, and even in Rounds 2 and 3 where you can make a case for Kovalev, Ward is picking his spots patiently and doing exactly what he wants do. Rewatch this fight. One of the most comprehensive soul-taking performances in a fight between two likely Hall of Famers. R1: Ward (close) R2: Kovalev (close) R3: Ward (extremely close) R4: Ward (clear) R5: Ward (close) R6: Ward (clear) R7: Ward (clear) On another note, what fight was Harold Lederman watching? Did any of you have Kovalev winning at the time of the stoppage? The great Roy Jones was the only one who saw what was happening from the beginning.
Was it? In Ryder vs Parker recently there was loads of punches landed on the belt line and nobody complained. When Ward hits belt there's panic. A punch to Krusher belt is legal because his body protector was high , see bellow. Weeks at the beginning of the fights told the boxers that belt line blows were legal. https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qFT...image/image/55316409/697115608.1497758719.jpg
I had Kovalev up I’ll watch again. Ward did do better than first fight but he wasn’t throwing much in second fight either.
Yeah. All the complaints about "low blows" it's one of the most insane recurrent themes on this forum. If Ward should have been disqualified for that, guys like Frazier and McCallum should have lost every fight they ever fought. Chuvalo should have been banned for life for his first fight with Ali etc etc.
This regardless of what people had their scoring has, it was clear Ward was breaking him down a round or 2 before the stoppage.
Yeah. Kovalev showed clearly even before he was hurt with that pull counter that he was looking for a way out. It is just beyond me why this fight became so controversial. Ward-Kessler, is a different matter. Even though Ward seemed to have full control of that fight from the start, he was at the very least careless with his head and banged Kessler up quite badly with it. But a few borderline body blows...? Ffs if we would overturn every fight that had a few of those we would have to rewrite boxing history.
I think people were upset with the murkiness of the stoppage. Because people such as myself were highly upset with the result of the first fight. I for one, never made much of a deal of the “low” blows Ward landed. Ward landed a crushing blow and had Kovalev on his way out. I don’t think he was gonna rebound in that fight. Kovalev however, was not the same fighter he was in the first bout. To me that fight was a travesty, because the stakes were so high. You had a legitimate p4p 1 and 2 go head to head and you got a BS result. I thought it bad for the sport. I think Kovalev spent the time at the bar before the rematch. He didn’t bring anything new or the fire of the first fight.
The first fight was very close and one of the fighters is always going to feel stiffed in such circumstances. And the fact is that most felt Kovalev should have won it, which of course made him feel even more strongly that he had been dealt a bad hand. But Ward gave an immediate rematch which is all you can reasonable expect. But, yes, when Ward started turning it around in the rematch it was clear that Kovalev's confidence was shattered. I don't know why exactly. Maybe he felt he didn't have it in him to go another tough 12 with Ward, who this time started his comeback a couple of rounds earlier than he had in the first. Thing is, though, that there is nothing for all this drama. A close fight ended with a controversial decision, but the losing fighter got the chance to avenge it directly after. He couldn't take it. That's really all she wrote, but in this age with social media people have to find a dramatic narrative for every ****ing thing so they made something up. But in terms of actual controversy it's not even on the charts.
For reference we have Louis vs Walcott. Louis won a fight that most though he should have lost, so he gave an immediate rematch and scored a come from behind KO. No god damned whining for that. But this is made into some epic scandal.
My memory is Ward forced a faster pace and Kovalev was slightly ahead and fad3d. He also rocked Sergei with a. Big right hand prior to the stoppage. It was a matter of time before Ward put him away inside the distance
I agree 100%. Just about all of those shots were on the belt line and were not low. I believe Tony Weeks was the ref and during the pre fight instructions pointed to Kovalev's belt line and said shots to this area were legal. Kovalev like a lot of fighters had his trucks pulled up high. Anyone that wants to discredit Ward as a fighter is delusional. He literally cleaned out his entire division and moved up to 175 and beat the best fighter there.
