By Yannis Mihanos: True champions have to go to hell sometimes, as we saw in last Saturday’s match between light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward on HBO PPV. This may have been the most important fight of the year. Ward and Kovalev gave it their all.
The Kovalev vs. Ward fight alone didn’t let anybody down. Unfortunately, the night was spoiled by a controversial judge’s decision with Ward being given a 12 round unanimous victory by the scores 114-113, 114-113 and 114-113.
I don’t know how and why the judges found Ward as a winner, that is a mystery to me. But this is boxing and controversy is its middle name. Every year something strange happens to some matches and that was definitely one of them.
Now I’m not going to sit and talk about this all day long.
There were also good things that happened, benefits that I am eager to talk about.
First and foremost, in this fight I looked for clues about what makes a fighter, true champion.
I just wanted to find in real action, how each fighter reacts when the going gets tough. And boy it got very tough out there for both of them. They both had to go through tough times. They both had to go through hell.
Ward went down from a crushing blow and even if Kovalev tried to finish him, he still managed to get up and continue for the whole 12 rounds just like a true champion would do.
But so did Kovalev and in flying colors: He weathered any kind of storm that Ward brought to him, any diversion tactics, any ways to take him out of his plan mostly failed. He never allowed frustration to take over and set in.
Like a true champ fought his way out.
Obviously, Kovalev is upset by the way he lost and angrily demands a rematch, that’s a natural reaction. I can’t blame him.
Ward on the other hand, knowing that as a winner he still has the upper hand, he is entitled to take it easy in the days and weeks to come.
Negotiations will take place only when the time is right and I’m pretty sure that time won’t be too far away.
All in all, I watched a fight that had it all and for sure can’t wait when that second match comes.