Andre Ward beats Sergey Kovalev – Results

By Boxing News - 11/20/2016 - Comments

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By Allan Fox: Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) had to get up off the deck to win a very controversial 12 round unanimous decision over IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) on Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kovalev dropped Ward hard in the 2nd round with a left-right combination. After the knockdown, Ward turned the fight into one prolonged wrestling match for the next 10 rounds. It was incredibly boring to watch the fight from that point on. Kovalev was up against it even before the fight started, as it was clearly a pro-Ward crowed. Kovalev was loudly booed by the fans during the undercard fights whenever he was shown in the dressing room by the HBO film crew.

The three judges scored the fight 114-113, 114-113 and 114-113. I scored the fight 9 rounds to 3 in favor of Kovalev. Some fans are saying that this is the biggest robbery since the 2012 fight between Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley. I don’t know that disagree with that. The wrong guy won tonight’s fight from what I saw. Kovalev dominated the action with his harder shots.

“It was a very bad decision,” said Kovalev after the fight. “The witnesses are here. I’m disappointed in the judges’ decision.I thought he won a few rounds, but not the full fight. I maybe lost three rounds.”

When asked if Kovalev would like a rematch with Ward, he said, “Of course, I want a rematch, and I’ll kick his ass. I wanted to show good boxing. I’m a guest here in USA. He’s a local. All judges are from USA. This is a sport. Don’t make it political.”

Ward has this to say after the fight:

“He did everything I expected him to and fade a bit,” said Ward about Kovalev. “Sometimes your going to win close fights. That’s the way it is. At the end of the day, I’m a two division world champion. Of course, I’m not going to negotiate a fight right now. I’m going to see what’s next.”

In re-scoring the fight, I had Kovalev winning rounds 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The only round I had Ward winning was round 3. I turned down the sound on my television so I didn’t hear the cheering for either fighter. But when i would turn the sound up, I noticed the crowd cheered very little when Kovalev landed his harder shots. When Ward would lanbd his weaker punches, there was a huge roar from the crowd, as if he was doing something special. I figured that the judges would have a hard time shutting out the crowd so that they could see the fight for what was really taking place, and I was right.

What’s particularly sad about tonight’s results is that Ward, 32, is likely going to be crowned the No.1 pound for pound fighter by Ring Magazine off of this “win” over Kovalev. Ward would be taking the place of #1 Roman Gonzalez, who hasn’t done anything to be removed from the top spot. I think Gonzalez is a MUCH more exciting fighter than Ward. If Ward is going to be the top guy in boxing, then that sends the wrong message to the fans in my view. Ward didn’t put in the kind of performance tonight for him to take over the top pound for pound spot. Ward looked more like a wrestler than a fighter, and I think it looks bad if the top spot in boxing is going to be that kind of fighter. I’d rather have Gonzalez say at the top, because he’s far more exciting to watch in my opinion.