Ward wins questionable victory over Kessler – Super Six tourney
November 22nd, 2009
By Amar Jahangir: Four Elbows, five head buts and CONSTANT holding from Ward last night in the Super Six tournament bout at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. The referee should never be allowed to officiate another boxing match again, in my view. American Andre Ward (21-0, 13 KO’s) was an absolute disgrace; World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler (42-2, 32 KO’s) never had a chance with fighting in America. Ward often hit and then held Kessler, and when they were meant to break up, Ward just kept launching sneaky hits, elbows and head butts.
Last night you saw why European fighters do not want to fight in America. How the allowed constant head butting and elbowing with holding is beyond me, the only people who did not see the blatant fouling were American fans themselves. The WBA should strip Ward of the title or force him to defend his title at a neutral venue with a referee who does not allow fighters to head butt and cheat their way to victories.
Ward next fight will be against American Jermain Taylor. I honestly see Ward getting knocked out. Ward is a poor boxer and does not deserve to be in this competition. I can’t wait until he has to fight proper boxers outside of America, the land of fouling. Ward will get taught how to box and will be shocked when he is disqualified for fouling.
Tags: 29 Responses to “Ward wins questionable victory over Kessler – Super Six tourney”
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You must be related to Kessler or you have never watched boxing before. Ward fought like a veteran and did what he had to in order to win. If Kessler didnt like Ward getting inside he should have thrown jabs. Although I am sure you will say that the ref wouldnt let him jab.
Wow, this article was pretty bad. I am curious to know what basis the author has in order to make the claim that Taylor will knock out Ward.
Amar Jahabgir must be so new to boxing writing that he missed Hector Afu’s awful refereeing job in Froch-Dirrell. I was at both fights and witnessed Ward being effective with his left as early as round 1. He didn’t fear the favored Kessler (who I picked to win) and his confidence grew round by round as he was quicker and more accurate than Kessler. The judges gave MK 2-3 rounds, so it was way more than a headbutt or holding. Jahabgir lost the rest of his marginal credibility when he speculated that Taylor would KO Ward. I’m looking forward to attending the next bout in the Super Six tourney, which is good for boxing.
It would appear the Americans got their victory by hook or by crook. The head butts are as American as apple pie and Ward revealed that he is an apple pie fan par excellance.
you are a imbecil! Ward was the much better fighter. Kessler? Who is Kessler?! These were the words ok Bernard Hopkins 2 years ago when he fought Calzaghe. Who is Kessler i’m asking you now? He definetely is not in Wards league.
superb article 100% agree
I watched the fight and i realised how poor ward is, and although i find the super 6 interesting now i have come to realise its all about getting the belts into the hands of americans.
ward will get knocked out because all he has is speed and no power!!
there is one issue ward refused to fight outside of america so its in his contract with the super 6 he doesnt have too
u guys are all guy. man up, the better man one…..just like croach & abraheim, so did ward
The ref was a disgrace and the Showtime announcers were too busy being partisan to call him out on it.
Well, I picked Kessler but I don’t think that the outcome would have changed with any other referee. Ward was great from the beginning until the end, he never stopped hitting Kessler hard, he also had a great jab last night and a great hook. Ward won with all the weapons he had(also the head) but he would have won anyway, maybe not by KO, but how many rounds Ward lost??(whoever think that Kessler had a chance with other referee). I just gave the 5th to Kessler. So don’t make excuses, Kessler was taken to school, Ward was the veteran last night.
Froch is only one in this tournament that won a questionable decision.
this super 6 is pure coruption, ( cant spell)
boxing has been curupted by money, and a few people behind this is bob arum / don king / osca de la hoya / mayweather, but damn they are just puppets for the system, just like bush / obama.
they are robots.
boxing is full of curuption.
i cant be asked to see this fight, because i now the real results
Oh I get it. This is a reaction to the Carl Froch fight. And all of the latitude that he was given with what truly seemed to be intentional fouling. And, Carl all but admitted that he was doing it intentionally. It takes two to clash heads and I know that certain fighters may have stances that would tend to increase the probability of heads clashing. I would say that the person who takes the brunt of a head butt sometimes causes the heads to clash themselves. I think that on certain occasions this was the case with Ward and Kessler. After all Ward did not do any judo trips or pushing his opponents head down while throwing punches to the back of it. I don’t think a fighter should be penalized for unintentional butts.
i think ward was disappointing with his dirty antics dirrel for me was more impressive than ward when he chose not to run
Amar Jahangir is a moron for writing this story.
Ward was the way better fighter, no doubt about that.
But i dont like his dirty trick with the head butts.
I hope the referee will stop this in Wards next fight.
Cheers to Ward.
I loved seeing MK get butcherd and bloodied! Another Euro fighter who’s been fighting other slow European fighters got exposed!
And you guys are the same ones loving it when FROCK forearmed Dirrell all night! Cant have it both ways. At least ward wasn’t being too “NEGATIVE”!!!! LOL!!
I totaly agree with you i thought that thee was amandate in the super 6 for the referee to come from an impartial country, so how come this was allowed. This type of cheating is a disgrace.
Aubrey C, you’re an idiot. This article was racist? Uh, not quite. I don’t think Ward should’ve been DQ’d, but the ref should’ve warned him for headbutting AT THE LEAST. Ward proved he’s fast, and he can throw a mean head butt. Did you even watch the fight? Ward never hurt Kessler with a punch. The two big cuts over Kessler’s eyes came from butts. I would never pay money to see Ward fight. He throws two punches and rushes in with a head butt and clinches. BORING! If Ward likes to wrestle, he should join the UFC. This is boxing.
Amar you are a disgrace as a writer. Obviously you do not know boxing or have ever boxed. You gave a very racist opinion in your article. Ward completely dominated MK throughout the whole fight. The referee even gave MK time to recover on I believe two occasions. Like Scott predicted, and everyone who really knows boxing said, Ward’s elusive movement and boxing skills would make this an easy fight for him. Forget about MK’s experience with C level fighters, he fights straight forward and very “European”. And to talk about holding, MK was the one holding in the second half of the fight. MK started throwing wild looping shots that couldn’t land. MK lost all respect from me for being a sore looser. Everyone expected MK to win, and the way the ref acted, it was almost staged for him to win. Ward should have been awarded the TKO. MK had no chance…he is a typical “Euro” fighter and got whupped! Every MK fan will now make terrible excuses for their fallen, “ordinary” fighter.
the way i see it kessler would loose even if ward had not fought dirty, kessler is to stiff for ward, but if we just see the fight as it was, ward should have lost on the count of DQ
Wow, ur an idiot. Kessler was getting hit flush with every punch in the book and lost to a younger albeit MUCH superior fighter. Ward boxed circles around him and made Kessler look amateurish as Mikkel was throwing desperate wild swings the last couple of rounds. And unlike Calzaghe, Ward actually looked like he would stop Kessler late in the fight. Ur nothing but a eurocentric palsy and it shows, if your guy doesnt win then he wasnt in top form?? Kessler is a basic boxer with average footwork and speed and agility to go with basic combination punching. Ward is an Olympian, a champion and the future of the sport.
UR A JOKE , KESSLER DIDNT DO CRAP MAN HE BLOWS!
Kessler was steamrollered. Ward landed big shots from distance all night and on the inside Kessler was just a punchbag for Andre.
“Ward next fight will be against American Jermain Taylor. I honestly see Ward getting knocked out. Ward is a poor boxer and does not deserve to be in this competition.” LMAO
The comments above expose your childlike understanding of the sport…..
Ward was beating kessler. The ref actually did good considering and understanding how ugly a lefty vs eighty can be. I also don’t see klitschko complain about holding. He’ s from across the Atlantic!
STOP MAKING EXCUSES,WARD DOMINATED AND PUNISHED KESSLER,HE EXPOSED KESSLER,THERE WAS NOTHIN QUESTIONABLE ABOUT DIS FIGHT,WARD WAS THE WAYY BETTER FIGHTER AND KESSLER WAS TOOK THE WORSE BEATING IN HIS CAREER
We should be ashamed for allowing this kind of boxing and refereeing … accepting this lousy victory as part of a world championship.I totally agree with you article.
I was (and still am) a Mikkel Kessler fan going into this, and while I agree that the hometown referee contributed significantly to the outcome, it’s clear that Kessler was not in top form last night, and I further question his corner’s ability to help him adjust under fire. With a neutral referee, Kessler may have been able to pull it out with a couple of well placed bombs late in the game, but it never should have come to that. Thankfully, the ref was attentive enough to rule it a technical decision rather than a technical KO, thus preventing a 3-point win. Kessler still has the goods, so hopefully he’ll return with a vengence…
totally agree with this article 100%. Ward constantly fouled and should have been disqualified.