Will the American officials be fair to Kovalev when he fights Ward?

Freedom2013 · Post by **Freedom2013** » 24 Aug 2016, 12:30

We've all seen foreign-born boxers be unfairly treated. It happens all over the world: UK, Germany, USA, etc. Ideally, referees and judges should be fair and impartial.

Nationalistic or biased referees can make a difference in fights, like we saw in Soto-Lorenzo (Joe Cortez), Mansour-Cunningham (Smoger is a friend of Cunningham), Lomachenko-Salido (Lawrence Cole), Martinez-Cintron (Frank Santore Jr) , Hatton-Mayweather (Cortez again), and Kessler-Ward (Jack Reiss).

And we all know nationalistic boxing judges can ruin a boxer's efforts. Remember Kotelnik-Alexander, Pacquiao-Bradley I, Brewster-Meehan, and Sturm-De La Hoya?

Commentators who are rooting for one fighter over another can make a difference in public opinion. If the HBO commentators are rooting for one fighter over another, they can sway the viewers. We know Max Kellerman and the other American commentators will be rooting for Andre Ward, as will John Rawling (who doesn't like Russians) on the international feed if allegedly is covering it. Dan Rafael and other American boxing journalists may become nationalistic and score all the rounds for Ward, whether he wins them or not.

Do you believe Sergey Kovalev will get a fair shake when he fights Andre Ward?

IKSRTFO · Post by **IKSRTFO** » 24 Aug 2016, 12:45

Where's your faith in the power of Kovalev? If he's that strong and Ward's chin is as questionable as what some on this board want to believe, the judges won't matter. But if Ward is able to make it close in any way, he isn't the type to let it slip away.

Ilya Muromets · Post by **Ilya Muromets** » 24 Aug 2016, 12:47

I'm sure they won't be but I'm also quite sure that Kovalev won't leave it up to the discretion of their honest judges, and even their honest referee, try as he might, won't be able to interfere enough to save the day.

Oiky · Post by **Oiky** » 24 Aug 2016, 12:48

No kovalev won't be getting a fair shake, but he won't need it, he will break ward down

RoyRJ · Post by **RoyRJ** » 24 Aug 2016, 13:26

Never, just remember the Mayweather fights against Jose luis castilo,Canelo and Pacman.

SFW · Post by **SFW** » 24 Aug 2016, 13:45

Hold on. The cheesedicks that whine and cry about every little thing that Ward does or doesn't do, and ensure everyone he has a glass chin and will be knocked out, are now starting to introduce a likely corruption with judges, the judges previously unneeded yesterday. Thank God Sergei doesn't subscribe to that cowardice mentality, it's amazing how opposites attract though. There is no need to worry about judges, the result will be clear either way, despite your growing doubts.

Freedom2013 · Post by **Freedom2013** » 24 Aug 2016, 14:05

SFW wrote:Hold on. The cheesedicks that whine and cry about every little thing that Ward does or doesn't do, and ensure everyone he has a glass chin and will be knocked out, are now starting to introduce a likely corruption with judges, the judges previously unneeded yesterday. Thank God Sergei doesn't subscribe to that cowardice mentality, it's amazing how opposites attract though. There is no need to worry about judges, the result will be clear either way, despite your growing doubts.

gilgamesh · Post by **gilgamesh** » 24 Aug 2016, 14:12

In all likelihood, yes

gilgamesh · Post by **gilgamesh** » 24 Aug 2016, 14:13

RoyRJ wrote:Never, just remember the Mayweather fights against Jose luis castilo,Canelo and Pacman.

What exactly happened that was unfair officiating in any of those fights? If anything Canelo was given preferential treatment against Floyd considering the absolutely ridiculous 114-114 scorecard that was read.

jockpunk · Post by **jockpunk** » 24 Aug 2016, 14:38

RoyRJ wrote:Never, just remember the Mayweather fights against Jose luis castilo,Canelo and Pacman.

Those are terrible examples you are using to make your point.

JCS · Post by **JCS** » 24 Aug 2016, 14:52

How many of you knew who created this thread before you looked at the actual author?

SaadOffTheDeck · Post by **SaadOffTheDeck** » 24 Aug 2016, 15:08

Lol, I did. All of the officials won't be American.

SFW · Post by **SFW** » 24 Aug 2016, 15:41

JCS wrote:How many of you knew who created this thread before you looked at the actual author?

I did, but needling these chumps is entertaining. One head butt 7 years ago, in a fight Dre was dominating before and after, is this idiot's " smoking gun". What is there to worry bout really, the weakness in the argument is just as recognizable as the limp wrist typing it. Next we're going to hear that Andre has to move out of Oakland because he got knocked down by Boone 11 years ago. And can only box on Sundays so he can't go to church.

If the Ward doubters are so confident why cry about absolutely everything possible? Because their not as confident as they act.

boxing_rocks · Post by **boxing_rocks** » 24 Aug 2016, 16:02

IKSRTFO wrote:Where's your faith in the power of Kovalev? If he's that strong and Ward's chin is as questionable as what some on this board want to believe, the judges won't matter. But if Ward is able to make it close in any way, he isn't the type to let it slip away.

Ward's head has significant power too. If he lands it first, Kovalev can be badly cut or even wobbled.

ClivePatrickLyons · Post by **ClivePatrickLyons** » 25 Aug 2016, 01:53

This all purely depends on who the judge's are some are corrupt or incompetent or both...................And some judge's do have moral's thats who BOTH Kovalev and Ward need to be judging the winner if it gets that far

BAD INTENTIONS · Post by **BAD INTENTIONS** » 25 Aug 2016, 03:23

Americans don't care about American anything ... maybe a little during the Olympics.

Americans care about media and money.
Kovalev might get favorable conditions as it seems America is done with Ward.

Andre better put on a showcase, or Kovalev is getting it.

hurricanemitch14 · Post by **hurricanemitch14** » 25 Aug 2016, 08:57

Euros already making excuses for that school Kovalev is gonna get. Fight ain't for another 3 months and the excuses are already getting thrown around.

boxing_rocks · Post by **boxing_rocks** » 25 Aug 2016, 11:09

hurricanemitch14 wrote:Euros already making excuses for that school Kovalev is gonna get. Fight ain't for another 3 months and the excuses are already getting thrown around.

If Ward doesn't manage to hurt Kova with a headbutt, Krusher will either stop him or will force him into Bernard's defense only mode.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 25 Aug 2016, 11:23

boxing_rocks wrote:
hurricanemitch14 wrote:Euros already making excuses for that school Kovalev is gonna get. Fight ain't for another 3 months and the excuses are already getting thrown around.
If Ward doesn't manage to hurt Kova with a headbutt, Krusher will either stop him or will force him into Bernard's defense only mode.

We shall see - let's see how it transpires, and how accurate your comments are.

Lackeos · Post by **Lackeos** » 25 Aug 2016, 13:04

I'm not hardly optimistic enough to believe that this fight is actually going to happen.

SaadOffTheDeck · Post by **SaadOffTheDeck** » 25 Aug 2016, 13:08

jamesmcdonnell wrote:
boxing_rocks wrote:
hurricanemitch14 wrote:Euros already making excuses for that school Kovalev is gonna get. Fight ain't for another 3 months and the excuses are already getting thrown around.
If Ward doesn't manage to hurt Kova with a headbutt, Krusher will either stop him or will force him into Bernard's defense only mode.
We shall see - let's see how it transpires, and how accurate your comments are.

I wish I could bet on him being completely wrong. First off a headbutt wouldn't render Kovalev meek. More importantly, as much as I dislike Ward, a guy that hasn't lost in decades isn't going to bow out in a noneffort to go the distance.

Ilya Muromets · Post by **Ilya Muromets** » 25 Aug 2016, 15:44

[quote="Freedom2013"...

[/quote]

Damn - he uses his head like a f'g big horn sheep! The house referee, Jack Reiss, of course he didn't see nuthin. He didn't see nuthin; he didn't know nuthin about nuthin. Head butt? What head butt? I didn't see nuthin.

Freedom2013 · Post by **Freedom2013** » 03 Sep 2016, 15:59

Is it unrealistic of me to hope for a fair fight, with an honest ref and fair judges?

Andrew Kearney · Post by **Andrew Kearney** » 03 Sep 2016, 18:29

No, I don't believe the officials will be fair to Kovalev.

Kovalev likely needs a KO to win, or he needs to absolutely dominate the rounds like he did in the Hopkins fight. They won't give him any close rounds.

If the fight is in anyway close, or competitive, we should expect that the judges will be biased in favour of Ward and will likely award him all close rounds. So, I'm not saying its impossible for Kovalev to win a decision, but realistically, there is a documented history of foreigners being ripped off in the US with crooked judging and the chance of Kovalev receiving fair treatment or winning close rounds is close to non-existent.

There are literally 50 or so examples I could give going back the past decade or so which feature instances of a foreign boxer being ripped off on American soil. Some have been outright robberies (Kotelnik-Alexander, Castillo-Mayweather, DLH-Sturm, Browne-Kalajdzic, Cintron-Martinez, Bradley-Pacquiao, Brewster-Meehan, Garcia-Herrera), or fights that would have been robberies but the foreigner won by KO (Pirog-Jacobs, crazy to think the American judges were actually lining Pirog up to get robbed) but many times its a close fight where the American receives every benefit of the doubt but probably should have lost had things really been fair or neutral (Byrd-Golota, Martinez-Williams I, Maidana-Mayweather I, Cloud-Campillo, Cloud-Johnson, Williams-Lara, Bradley-Provodnikov).

In my opinion, officiating in the USA is more biased than it is anywhere else in the world. Im not saying officiating in Germany, England, or Russia is perfect but in my experience as a life long boxing fan it is more fair than in USA.

Badhusker · Post by **Badhusker** » 03 Sep 2016, 18:50

Freedom2013 wrote:We've all seen foreign-born boxers be unfairly treated. It happens all over the world: UK, Germany, USA, etc. Ideally, referees and judges should be fair and impartial.

Nationalistic or biased referees can make a difference in fights, like we saw in Soto-Lorenzo (Joe Cortez), Mansour-Cunningham (Smoger is a friend of Cunningham), Lomachenko-Salido (Lawrence Cole), Martinez-Cintron (Frank Santore Jr) , Hatton-Mayweather (Cortez again), and Kessler-Ward (Jack Reiss).

And we all know nationalistic boxing judges can ruin a boxer's efforts. Remember Kotelnik-Alexander, Pacquiao-Bradley I, Brewster-Meehan, and Sturm-De La Hoya?

Commentators who are rooting for one fighter over another can make a difference in public opinion. If the HBO commentators are rooting for one fighter over another, they can sway the viewers. We know Max Kellerman and the other American commentators will be rooting for Andre Ward, as will John Rawling (who doesn't like Russians) on the international feed if allegedly is covering it. Dan Rafael and other American boxing journalists may become nationalistic and score all the rounds for Ward, whether he wins them or not.

Do you believe Sergey Kovalev will get a fair shake when he fights Andre Ward?

No big surprise........you are usually the one that expects corruption that is unwarranted.