Kovalev vs. Ward

By Allan Fox: Main Events promoter Kathy Duva says her fighter Sergy “Krusher” Kovaelv (30-1-1, 26 KOs) beat challenger Andre “SOG” Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) last Saturday night in their fight on HBO pay-per-view, and that they’ll beat him again in the rematch that they’re asking for. Unfortunately for Duva, the three judges that worked the fight – Burt Clements, Glenn Trowbridge and John Mckaie – felt differently in scoring the fight for Ward 114-113, 114-113 and 114-113.

Duva says that Kovalev deserved to win the 10th round, which all three judges scored for Ward. If Kovalev had won the 10th round on all three judges; scorecards, he would have won the fight. The 10th round was a difficult one to score, however.

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By Chris Williams: Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) says his game plan was to anger IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) last Saturday night by talking to him and frustrating him in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ward said his trainer Virgil Hunter told him to intentionally make the 33-year-old Kovalev angry, because he felt that he was angry type of fighter that wears his emotions on his sleeves.

Ward then went about doing that last Saturday by doing things like talking, faking bolo punches, and wrestling with him on the inside. Ward says that Kovalev had no inside game to speak of, so he worked him over in close. Ward points out that Kovalev tried to tell everyone that he was a dirty fighter, but referee Robert Byrd wasn’t buying into any of it. Ward had the advantage in boxing skills and the inside game against Kovalev. That was clear.

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By Chris Williams: Sergey Kovalev has now experienced what it feels like to lose for the first time in his 12 round decision defeat at the hands of Andre “SOG” Ward from last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now it’s a good time for Kovalev to accept his defeat mentally, give credit where credit is due, and learn from the loss.

Kovalev needs to lick his wounds from the battle, accept what has happened, and move on. If Kovalev, 33, and his promoter Kathy Duva want the rematch with Ward, then now is the time to make themselves heard by asking for it in a professional manner without anger or complaints. It doesn’t help things if they bitterly complain to the media about the decision from last Saturday against Ward.

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By Eric Baldwin: Two days after Andre Ward’s contested 12 round unanimous decision over IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev last Saturday night, Kathy Duva, the promoter for Kovalev, says they’re shooting for March as the target date for the rematch with the 32-year-old Ward.

Duva says they are ABSOLUTELY going to demand the rematch with Ward. That’s their right. They want the rematch, so will need to give them one. Duva says needs to look at the contract to see how much time Ward has before he must give Kovalev a rematch.

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By Rishad Marquardt: ‘Sport and politics shouldn’t mix’ is the old saying and this writer will be adhering to that principle, choosing not to ponder socio-political matters in the arena of boxing journalism any time soon. In this second decade of the twenty-first century there are so many virtual avenues in virtual worlds people can stroll down to engage in political or philosophical dialogue.

Sports journalism, now more than ever, can be a sanctuary for those of us who have become wearisome of the poppycock that stains the front pages of our newspapers and gleams out at us from our TV and computer screens. But alas, following the light heavyweight title clash between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev, I find myself forced to dip my toes into the pond of political analogy.

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By Michael Montero – Over 13,000 fans trickled into the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Saturday night to watch Sergey Kovalev put his light heavyweight titles on the line against Andre Ward. After what had been a lackluster undercard (to put it nicely), the subdued atmosphere quickly sprung to life as the fighters made their way into the ring. Not surprisingly, it was a pro-Ward crowd, as the American received cheers to the Russian’s jeers. Both men entertained the fans in a contest that turned out to be better than many expected. But when it was all said and done, the night would end in controversy.

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By Eric Baldwin: Andre Ward wasn’t in the mood to give former IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev much credit after beating him last Saturday night in their fight on HBO pay-per-view. Despite winning the fight by a very narrow margin of 114-113 on all three scorecards, Ward boasted about Kovalev not being the hardest puncher he’s ever faced, and how he believes he wore down in the second half of the fight.

Kovalev appeared to be the one on the attack in the 11th and 12th rounds, while Ward was moving away, trying to hold. It’s unclear what Ward means by him thinking that Kovalev faded.

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By Gerardo Granados: Last Saturday night, Andre Ward put up an ugly boxing exhibition to clinch a dubious unanimous decision win over Sergey Kovalev by the scores of 114-113 x 3 (by the three fight judges) to win the WBA-WBO-IBF light heavyweight titles. It was neither a boxing chess match nor a good scrap, but instead, one of the dirtiest title fights that I have seen in a very long time.

Elbows, headbutts, low blows, kidney punches, rabbit punches, pushing, tackles, hitting when ordered to break and endless clinching that resembled Greco Roman Wrestling.

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By Allan Fox: Andre Ward sounded as if he were gloating after the fight about beating IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev by a disputed 12 round unanimous decision in their fight on HBO pay-per-view. Ward said afterwards that he felt that Kovalev had no inside game. However, Ward did a lot of wrestling and was able to get away with tying Kovalev up for 12 rounds due to referee Robert Byrd playing no part in trying to control the holding/wrestling from Ward.

You can argue that the holding/wrestling was excessive, and Ward was able to get away with due Byrd choosing to take a laissez faire approach to controlling that part of the fight. Byrd left Kovalev out there on his own to deal with the wrestling. Kovalev had never faced an opponent that did that much holding, and he clearly wasn’t ready to deal with it.

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