By Vadim Pushkin

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is not happy with the selection of officials for last Saturday's fight between light heavyweights Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26KOs) and Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs).

Ward captured the IBF, WBO, WBA light heavyweight titles with a twelve round unanimous decision over Kovalev at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

All three judges had the fight scored for Ward, 114-113. The scoring and the officiating by referee Robert Byrd has come under fire by Kovalev and his team members.

Sulaiman felt the decked was stacked against Kovalev, because the Russian fighter was facing an Olympic gold medal winner from the United States, with an American referee and three American judges. Although it should be noted that Kovalev lives and trains in the United States.

He wants to see change when it comes to the selection of officials in certain jurisdictions, but when it comes to Las Vegas - their local commission has the final say when it comes to the selection of officials and the appointment of those officials.

"How can a champion to go to another country and box with four officials, who hail from the country of the boxer who is the challenger? This is simply unacceptable, but nobody can do anything to the system, which is under various jurisdictions," Sulaiman said.

Sulaiman was also not pleased with with the performance of Byrd. He felt the veteran ref allowed the contest to become a dirty fight filled with fouls, wrestling and tackles.

"In my opinion - the referee can never lose credibility and respect, and the fight steered in the direction of a dirty boxing match. There were a lot of punches to the back, and they are dangerous, low blows, too many clinches," Sulaiman said.