Have a night off but OK.... if O'Connor was close enough to the action like he was when he carried Cleverly back to his stool then Kovalev wouldn't have clipped Cleverly around the back of the head when he was down. I just watched it again on youtube and it looks even worse the second time around, O'Connor was trying to get between them to stop it (looked like he stopped it to me) or even worse to stop Kovalev hitting Cleverly and at the bell O'Connor ****ing held Cleverly up and walked him back to his stool :rofl
Think he knew clev was going to flip out and knock kovalev out,so decided to make sure he went back to his stool. Great reffing, seeing what nobody else can.
I watched it a 3rd time and you maybe right, I saw fear in Kovalev's eyes at the end of the round when Cleverly was drooling on his stool. he must have known Cleverly was play acting, setting traps..... :think
Seeing Clev's face on his stool after round 1 said it all - the confidence had gone completely. He'd obviously felt the weight of Kov's punches on his gloves and knew he was in trouble
This was a disgusting display of reffing. Kovalev has (sadly) shared a ring with someone who has died in there and Fatboy Conner carried Nathan back to his stool so he could take more punishment. Should not be allowed anywhere near a ring again.
When the ref stepped in, Was he going to count Cleverly as he couldn't stand upright? or was he going to stop the fight but the bell rang a second after Cleverly's camp should have pulled him out though, Why did they send him back out! Maybe chucking in the towel would have done him more damage in the future as a quitter so they thought, Let's send him out and see what happens.
****ing disgraceful, that fat **** should never ref a fight again, people saying it didnt matter, it would matter if in the fourth Clev was hit and ended up with brain damage or something, he was out of it in the 3rd and the fight had been waved off, if you have to actually carry a fighter back to the corner they are in no fit condition to fight on, Nathan's corner is also a disgrace for letting him go out in the 4th