Ward-Kovalev Rematch - My thoughts

[Enlightened-One]

At the time of the stoppage, I had Andre Ward leading the contest by a 67-66 margin.

All of the rounds were particularly difficult to score, with both the first and also the sixth rounds considered as swing rounds, meaning that they could justifiably be given to either fighter, depending on your stylistic preferences.

So it's not unreasonable for others to have different scores than mine, if they had Kovalev leading by a single point.

Sergey Kovalev's work-rate dipped in the seventh round and he made a meal out of a punch to the belt of his groin protector, because no way was it thrown low enough to land on his junk, which alerted me to the Russian's potential depleted stamina. He was clearly troubled by Ward's work to the body... and appeared to be fading.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, when a fighter stops "protecting himself at all times", he places the referee in a difficult situation, because it compels him to consider the stoppage even though the deeply-troubled fighter isn't showing signs that he's going to hit the deck.

Kovalev wasn't effectively returning fire and he was defensively irresponsible the moment Ward connected with his right hand during the eighth round.

For sure, a lot of Ward's shots to the body were borderline, but the vast majority of them landed on Kovalev's belt.

When Kovalev bent over before Ward landed his final illegal low blows, it wasn't unreasonable for Andre to continue throwing shots considering how the Russian had positioned his body.

The final couple of low blows thrown by Ward superficially seemed illegal, but it was too difficult to tell for sure by the slow motion action replays, prior to that though, Kovalev had resorted to bending over as his primary form of defence, which in itself would compel most referees to call a halt to the bout.

Sergey Kovalev refused to hit the deck in order to regroup, so even though the Russian could have continued, he wasn't returning fire and nor was he defending himself effectively. He placed the referee in a very difficult situation.

Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev both employed borderline illegal tactics during their rematch, so it's unfair to lambast the winner of this fight simply because your preferred fighter lost.

[Ricky_]

Shutup Fergus, nobody cares what you think.

[greg]

What's not clear about this punch?

[Ricky_]

What's not clear about this punch?

Apparantly tucking your chin and guarding your body isn't "defending yourself effectively"... sure isn't when you're opponent is hammering your balls

Fergus is a facking idiot that thinks he's some kind of boxing analyst. He's like if Charlie Zelenoff thought he was a boxing writer, instead of a fighter.

[lazboy]

What's not clear about this punch?

Apparantly tucking your chin and guarding your body isn't "defending yourself effectively"... sure isn't when you're opponent is hammering your balls

Fergus is a facking idiot that thinks he's some kind of boxing analyst. He's like if Charlie Zelenoff thought he was a boxing writer, instead of a fighter.

walks around basement in underwear with "1# boxrec forum analyst" belt made of paper

[paddy chavez]

I do think kovalev deliberately complained to the ref during the fight about low blows to stop ward from going to the body and many were low but the ref wasn't having it and told him to fight on , ward had hurt kovalev with a big right and would of most likely got the stoppage if he had kept his shots up but he did hit kovalev low and kovalev should of been given time instead of the fight being stopped and ward had a point deducted. Shame really as it was starting to warm up nicely and I had kovalev 3 up

[Ricky_]

What's not clear about this punch?

Apparantly tucking your chin and guarding your body isn't "defending yourself effectively"... sure isn't when you're opponent is hammering your balls

Fergus is a facking idiot that thinks he's some kind of boxing analyst. He's like if Charlie Zelenoff thought he was a boxing writer, instead of a fighter.

walks around basement in underwear with "1# boxrec forum analyst" belt made of paper

Don't laugh, it's a sorry situation.

I can't believe signed up after being banned with the user name "enlightened one".

[lazboy]

Don't laugh, it's a sorry situation.

I can't believe signed up after being banned with the user name "enlightened one".

I can't help but laugh, I'm quite twisted you see. Enlightened one walking around in a dirty nappy with a paper boxrec belt amuses me.

Also I've notice the current scene has no rules, whereas every other section like British, Aus, History have clear rules. Thats why he doesnt get pulled up for all the aliases and trolling.

[amwsnw]

Great game plane by SOG - punish the body.
Koivalev showed he has no answer when he faces defeat. The stoppage whilst controversial does not detract from what the result was going to be. SK threw everything he had at SOG but could not get the result he wanted. The only difference in this bout is SOG had probably won more rounds in the first 6 than previous. Get on over it. SK is one dimensional and cannot box elite boxers. every low blow that was whinged about the ref was in perfect position to make a decision. further to that, SOG let SK off the hook twice when 1) SK turn his back and 2) he whinged about a low blow and AW stood back when he should've moved in.
SK was getting stopped in this fight no matter what way you look at it.
Maybe when SOG moves up to cruiser SK can have a reign again. Until that time, SK's time is over.
I didnt see SK whinging when the fight was stopped.........only once he had time to recoup and listen to others.

[asdfjkl]

This is how I saw it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzvtNCX3vP8

I just carefully watched the fight and this is what I saw:
1: Kovalev, but close
2nd round: Kovalev again, Ward received his last warning for lowblows around 7:00
3rd round: Kovalev again, Ward is continually bending over to avoid getting hit, Kovalev is just a too fair fighter
4rth round: Kovalev again, Ward is once again fully blowing on his balls around 14:45 , ref says they should keep it clean, to both?!
5th: Ward, the fight is getting closer, but Ward seems to have more energy, like he used some kind of doping or something.
6th: Kovalev, appearantly Ward used all his energy in the previous round and didn't seem as sharp as Kovalev
7th: Ward needs help from his injuries in the corner before the 7th round starts, bleeding in both his nose as well as his mouth. Ward somehow less or more won this round, but in an unfair way, he now headbuts Kovalev in his ribs several times in the beginning.
Around 27:23 / 27:24 Ward bangs Kovalev in his balls hard right in front of the referee despite the warnings he received before earlier in the match and follows up with a headbang on the back of Kovalev's head. Soon after the ref bangs Kovalev himself with his body on Kovalev's head and immedietly says come on come on go go go to Ward, acting like Kovalev is just joking.
Kovalev now knows he got the ref against him and has no option left but defending both his balls, his body and his head, instead of just his head and body. Ward realises this and is focusing on his balls which clearly hurt Kovalev from this point, but he has to go on. Kovalev is hurt for the first time in this fight.
Ward himself is heavely injured, he's spitting blood around 28:55 , the fight should stop soon because Ward obviously can't continue long any more.
8th: Around 30:27 Ward hits Kovalev again full in his balls, and you see him thinking, shit, now I went to far I'm probably losing a point on that one. But no?! The refs says come on! Go on! Allmost like a supporter!
The fight goes on to everyone's surprise and Kovalev has no option left but knowing that his opponent will get away with ballblows. Kovalev visably has pain in his balls and that's also basically the only thing he protects and also the only thing Ward focusses on. Then the refs suddenly waves the fight off! Saying Ward is the winner?!

That's ridiculous and a massive plot twist.

Around 32:21 / 32:22 even Ward's own wife says "just fight" thinking her husband is disqualified like he should be, around 32:35 somehow she seems to realise that he isn't disqualified, but awarded beïng the winner instead!

[greg]

https://twitter.com/TonyWeeks_/status/8 ... 3862614016

[Enlightened-One]

What's not clear about this punch?

That punch wasn't broadcast by Sky Sports from that angle but that's a moot point anyway, since my original post in this thread already concedes that Ward landed illegal low blows during his final barrage of shots immediately prior to the referee stopping the fight.

Read my post again and you'll realise this.

The ref has conceded that he stopped the fight for the very reason I clearly articulated.

None of the Sky Sports analysts, during their live commentary could say for certain that the low blows were illegal after watching the slow-motion replays from different angles... so the ref cannot be blamed for his mistake.

A fighter who bends to his waist prior to low blows connecting, as his sole form of defence, in my mind is much akin to turning his back on his opponent. And that's the reason why the ref stopped the fight.

[Ricky_]

https://twitter.com/TonyWeeks_/status/8 ... 3862614016

https://twitter.com/TonyWeeks_/status/8 ... 7612411910


Wtf! Why are ref's sucking up to Haymon!?!? Promoters really do have officials in their pocket.

[greg]

What's not clear about this punch?

That punch wasn't broadcast by Sky Sports from that angle but that's a moot point anyway, since my original post in this thread already concedes that Ward landed illegal low blows during his final barrage of shots immediately prior to the referee stopping the fight.

Read my post again and you'll realise this.

The ref has conceded that he stopped the fight for the very reason I clearly articulated.

None of the Sky Sports analysts, during their live commentary could say for certain that the low blows were illegal after watching the slow-motion replays from different angles... so the ref cannot be blamed for his mistake.

A fighter who bends to his waist prior to low blows connecting, as his sole form of defence, in my mind is much akin to turning his back on his opponent.

the referee conceded that he made a MISTAKE, period...that's the only thing that counts

[Enlightened-One]

Al Haymon is not affiliated to Roc Nation nor Main Events. In fact both promoters have previously filed lawsuits against the PBC chief.

How do we know that Tony Week's comment relates to the Ward-Kovalev fight?

[Ricky_]

Al Haymon is not affiliated to Roc Nation nor Main Events. In fact both promoters have previously filed lawsuits against the PBC chief.

How do we know that Tony Week's comment relates to the Ward-Kovalev fight?

Good knowledge there, no less than i'd expect from an enlightened one

As a wider point, officials shouldn't be sucking up to promoters. I wouldn't trust Weeks to be impartial with any Haymon affiliated fighter.

[Enlightened-One]

What's not clear about this punch?

That punch wasn't broadcast by Sky Sports from that angle but that's a moot point anyway, since my original post in this thread already concedes that Ward landed illegal low blows during his final barrage of shots immediately prior to the referee stopping the fight.

Read my post again and you'll realise this.

The ref has conceded that he stopped the fight for the very reason I clearly articulated.

None of the Sky Sports analysts, during their live commentary could say for certain that the low blows were illegal after watching the slow-motion replays from different angles... so the ref cannot be blamed for his mistake.

A fighter who bends to his waist prior to low blows connecting, as his sole form of defence, in my mind is much akin to turning his back on his opponent.

the referee conceded that he made a MISTAKE, period...that's the only thing that counts

A referee doesn't have the luxury of watching several slow motion replays from lots of different angles when he's responding for making an immediate judgement call.

If TV broadcasters who watched several of those replays in slow-motion (i.e. ESPN & SKY) couldn't say for certain that the blows were illegal or not, how the fûck is the ref supposed to know?

I feel that the refs intervention deprived Andre Ward the opportunity to score a clean-cut decisive stoppage victory.

[Ricky_]

I could see they were low on a fuzzy 320pixel stream. Surelt an enlightened one would know a low blow when he sees one.

[greg]

If TV broadcasters who watched several of those replays in slow-motion couldn't say for certain that the blows were illegal or not, how the fûck is the ref supposed to know?

what are you talking about? the referee conceded he made a mistake..what else do you need to know? the referee is payed to know it

[Enlightened-One]

If TV broadcasters who watched several of those replays in slow-motion couldn't say for certain that the blows were illegal or not, how the fûck is the ref supposed to know?

what are you talking about? the referee conceded he made a mistake..what else do you need to know?

What I've said is fûckïng obvious!

[greg]

If TV broadcasters who watched several of those replays in slow-motion couldn't say for certain that the blows were illegal or not, how the fûck is the ref supposed to know?

what are you talking about? the referee conceded he made a mistake..what else do you need to know?

What I've said is fûckïng obvious!

--you are talking absolute NONSENSE

[Enlightened-One]

what are you talking about? the referee conceded he made a mistake..what else do you need to know?

What I've said is fûckïng obvious!

--you are talking absolute NONSENSE

Watch replays of Sky Sports and ESPN immediately during the aftermath of that fight and you'll understand the point I've made.

[CheckHook]

Clearly two evenly matched fighters. Clearly two of the best fighters of their generation. Such a shame that they can't compete on a level playing field. This controversy will soon be forgotten and only the results will remain and boxing will move on to its next controversy. Two men will put their lives on the line and one will be facing a stacked deck. Love the sport, hate the politics.

[paddy chavez]

https://twitter.com/TonyWeeks_/status/8 ... 3862614016

https://twitter.com/TonyWeeks_/status/8 ... 7612411910


Wtf! Why are ref's sucking up to Haymon!?!? Promoters really do have officials in their pocket.

It should be a no contest if the ref has admitted the punches was low

[greg]

What I've said is fûckïng obvious!

--you are talking absolute NONSENSE

Watch replays of Sky Sports and ESPN immediately during the aftermath of that fight and you'll understand the point I've made.

..I told you before you don't see the forest for the trees...The referee whose job is to be fair and impartial, said that HIS STOPPAGE was a mistake...that's all that matters..