BoxRec

The "low blows" were more Judah/Khan than Mares/Agbeko.

Kovalev looked off the entire fight.
Even if the fight continued, he wasn't going to last 12 ... you know it.

I don't know what fight Lederman was watching.
He keeps talking about who's "coming forward" and who he thinks is punching harder. (PROVEN WRONG)

Ward did his thing and Kovalev is still a top fighter.

Is it so much to ask we have a legit winner? Twice we had this fight. First time the judges screw Kovalev. There shouldn't have been a need for a rematch, the result was clear.

The 2nd time the refs bizarrely waves it off after Kovalev winces and buckles from the clearest dick-shot you'll ever see.

Ward has 2 "wins" over Kovalev. I refuse to recognise either. Garbage. Bias. Corrupt.

Its not about "getting over it" ...its reasonable to express the view Kovalev just got screwed again. First time on the scorecard, this time from a referee who must think a guy's cock is by his ankles.

Maybe once Vegas can provide a less than stacked deck will people get over it. The response by fans is appropriate. Until then, Ward won't be taken seriously as the champ by many. Get over 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!

breaking news:

"I stopped the fight due to Kovalev not protecting himself had I saw the shots were low I would not have stopped the fight. My mistake"

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

greg wrote:breaking news:

"I stopped the fight due to Kovalev not protecting himself had I saw the shots were low I would not have stopped the fight. My mistake"

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

Good to hear, but still, why didn't he take points from Ward way earlier? With all the other blows?

important is that he acknowledged his mistake

Nothing more than damage control. Makes zero difference for the future.

Also, he had a better view than anyone. If he's that "incompetent", time to retire. His retirement fund just got bigger anyway.

I'll get over Ward winning, but Kovalev won't. Ward can kiss his future on pay-per-view goodbye. He's not P4P No. 1. If he's the best the sport has to offer, then boxing has problems.

First i'll say that I am Kovalev fan and I was hoping for a win last night but here's what I think about the fight.

Scoring: I had Kovalev up in the fight 5-2 in rounds (same rounds as Lederman) and I found the rounds way easier to store than the first fight. How 2 judges could have Ward up in the fight at the time of the stoppage is yet again pathetic until you see the name Dave Morretti and then you know we had another BS decision in the waiting regardless. Kovalev out-threw Ward, out-landed Ward and chased him around the ring with effective aggression. It's really impossible to find a way to have Ward up after 7 unless you bring corruption into your mindset. I bring corruption up as a last resort because I love this sport.

The Stoppage: It was a horrible stoppage. I can understand missing a few low blow punches but a million straight low blows in the corner in the biggest exchange of the fight? Weeks blew it. To waive off the fight like that the way he did was ridiculous. Give Kovalev a standing 8 or call it a knockdown but don't waive it off because there's no coming back from that. The fight is always over at that point. Standing 8 or a knockdown gives Weeks a chance to look in the fighters eyes to make a more intelligent decision in such a huge fight.

With that said, the above didn't matter at all because this fight was all over anyway. Kovalev was ALL DONE. Whether it happened in that corner a couple of seconds later or the next round, Ward was knocking Kovalev out. Kovalev again, blew his load early and tired out. I knew as soon as he tripped at one point in the 6th and looked at his shoe pretending that he slipped on something. His legs were dead. And honestly, Weeks had a tough call because a boxer can't just stop fighting because he feels he got hit low. Kovalev did it a few times in the fight and it appeared to most that he was just trying to buy time. Kovalev should have taken a knee in that case but he didn't and he put the decision on Weeks to make that call.

But I never thought i'd see it but Ward should get all the credit in the world for knocking out The Krusher. It was all academic at the point of the stoppage and maybe they saved Kovalev a nasty beating by ending it the way he did. Andre Ward #1 P4P? yeah sure....damn, i can't argue against that even though i don't like him. He deserves it...dammit. That was amazing.

The whole idea that "kovalev was finished anyway" is such bullshit. If the ref in the AJ v Klitchko fight had stopped AJ in round 5, 6 or 7 everyone would say the same thing: "He was finished anyway". It's almost as if none of you have ever seen a guy ride a storm then find a second win. Happens all the time.

This isn't an argument to legitamize a garbage stoppage with.

Ricky_ wrote:The whole idea that "kovalev was finished anyway" is such bullshit. If the ref in the AJ v Klitchko fight had stopped AJ in round 5, 6 or 7 everyone would say the same thing: "He was finished anyway". It's almost as if none of you have ever seen a guy ride a storm then find a second win. Happens all the time.

This isn't an argument to legitamize a garbage stoppage with.

Wlad should've finished Joshua to the low body, then he would've been done. But yeah, second winds don't exist anymore, apparently.

Ricky_ wrote:The whole idea that "kovalev was finished anyway" is such bullshit. If the ref in the AJ v Klitchko fight had stopped AJ in round 5, 6 or 7 everyone would say the same thing: "He was finished anyway". It's almost as if none of you have ever seen a guy ride a storm then find a second win. Happens all the time.

This isn't an argument to legitamize a garbage stoppage with.

I don't know what the referee was supposed to do. He wasn't fighting back at all and wasn't just bent over taking punishment, low admittedly, but what choice did he give the ref? He should have took a knee.

This is why I am among the few that likes a standing 8 count.

Ward was beginning to dominate but it was an early stoppage which sucks.

Fighters are well matched and anyone who thinks Ward-Kovalev 1 was a robbery is out of their fooking minds. I watched Ward-K. 1 yesterday and agreed with 114-113 Ward.

Ward and Kovalev both should be proud. Tony Weeks did a terrible job.

Covfefe wrote:

Ricky_ wrote:The whole idea that "kovalev was finished anyway" is such bullshit. If the ref in the AJ v Klitchko fight had stopped AJ in round 5, 6 or 7 everyone would say the same thing: "He was finished anyway". It's almost as if none of you have ever seen a guy ride a storm then find a second win. Happens all the time.

This isn't an argument to legitamize a garbage stoppage with.

I don't know what the referee was supposed to do.

Call a foul on the low shot? It's not rocket science.

Ricky_ wrote:

Covfefe wrote:

Ricky_ wrote:The whole idea that "kovalev was finished anyway" is such bullshit. If the ref in the AJ v Klitchko fight had stopped AJ in round 5, 6 or 7 everyone would say the same thing: "He was finished anyway". It's almost as if none of you have ever seen a guy ride a storm then find a second win. Happens all the time.

This isn't an argument to legitamize a garbage stoppage with.

I don't know what the referee was supposed to do.

Call a foul on the low shot? It's not rocket science.

He's bent over double at the waist and you expect him to see exactly where they landed in real time? Kovalev didn't react to them being low either. It's easy with replays.

Covfefe wrote:

Ricky_ wrote:

Covfefe wrote:
I don't know what the referee was supposed to do.

Call a foul on the low shot? It's not rocket science.

He's bent over double at the waist and you expect him to see exactly where they landed in real time? Kovalev didn't react to them being low either. It's easy with replays.

It's really hard to believe that on a boxing forum, full of dedicated boxing fans, there is a line of thinking that a referee, standing 2 meters away, shouldn't be held accountable for missing blatant low blows. If the referee is incapable of seeing shots that land below the belt then replace him with someone who can. Again, it's not rocket science.

Ricky_ wrote:

Covfefe wrote:

Ricky_ wrote:
Call a foul on the low shot? It's not rocket science.

He's bent over double at the waist and you expect him to see exactly where they landed in real time? Kovalev didn't react to them being low either. It's easy with replays.

It's really hard to believe that on a boxing forum, full of dedicated boxing fans, there is a line of thinking that a referee, standing 2 meters away, shouldn't be held accountable for missing blatant low blows. If the referee is incapable of seeing shots that land below the belt then replace him with someone who can. Again, it's not rocket science.

He is bent over double. Kovalev does not react to them being low. You cannot expect a referee to make a call when he can't be sure. It was physically impossible for him to see where those shots landed where he was and how Kovalev was stood.

Ask yourself why didn't Kovalev just take the knee?

greg wrote:breaking news:

"I stopped the fight due to Kovalev not protecting himself had I saw the shots were low I would not have stopped the fight. My mistake"

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

Most likely, it is a fake account. Judges don't publicly accept their mistakes.

boxing_rocks wrote:

greg wrote:breaking news:

"I stopped the fight due to Kovalev not protecting himself had I saw the shots were low I would not have stopped the fight. My mistake"

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

Most likely, it is a fake account. Judges don't publicly accept their mistakes.

of course, everything is possible

Why is no one blaming Kovalev for not throwing anything and standing bent over double doing nothing on the ropes? If he needed a break he should have taken a knee.

I do not think Kovalev fans had a right to bitch last time, I do think they have a right to bitch now.

I try to be "fair & balanced."