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People are engaging in too much exaggeration and hyperbole.
The fight was extremely close and Kovalev didn't clearly win a lot of the rounds that people gave him. The only rounds you can say he was truly dominant in was 2 and 4.
For example, Kovalev did not win round three convincingly at all and I scored that round for Ward. I thought he landed the cleaner punches and made Kovalev's head snap back with a few punches that round. It was fairly even, no one was dominant but I gave him that round for the same reason I gave Kovalev round 1.
In Round 1, I thought Ward was winning that round and boxing sharp. Kovalev landed a powerful jab though and people have been acting like he dominated. I gave him the round because of the power punch but by no means was he dominant. He just punches harder than Ward. Ward landed Jabs like that at will and he was landing some in the first round, but he just doesn't have the heavy hands of Kovalev
Do I feel Ward won? No! But that's simply because of the knockdown. I just don't feel comfortable giving him the decision in such a close fight when he was knocked down. The fight was razor thin close and after the fight I didn't walk away with the impression that either fighter was better than the other. They seemed to be pretty even to me. It took Ward sometime to adjust to the length and power of Kovalev, which was to be expected since Kovalev is unique and Ward moved up in weight...but when he did finally adjust to Krusher's skillset, he looked every bit as good a fighter as Kovalev.
For me though, I just am much more comfortable giving the W to Kovalev and if anyone should have won it was him, the early knockdown being the sole reason for that. It should have been a draw or Kovalev should have got the W. No way he loss the fight. Although I feel the fight was super close, I thought Andre Ward loss the fight because he was reckless and off balance early and allowed Kovalev to knock him down. He should have been much sharper than that.
The fight was extremely close and Kovalev didn't clearly win a lot of the rounds that people gave him. The only rounds you can say he was truly dominant in was 2 and 4.
For example, Kovalev did not win round three convincingly at all and I scored that round for Ward. I thought he landed the cleaner punches and made Kovalev's head snap back with a few punches that round. It was fairly even, no one was dominant but I gave him that round for the same reason I gave Kovalev round 1.
In Round 1, I thought Ward was winning that round and boxing sharp. Kovalev landed a powerful jab though and people have been acting like he dominated. I gave him the round because of the power punch but by no means was he dominant. He just punches harder than Ward. Ward landed Jabs like that at will and he was landing some in the first round, but he just doesn't have the heavy hands of Kovalev
Do I feel Ward won? No! But that's simply because of the knockdown. I just don't feel comfortable giving him the decision in such a close fight when he was knocked down. The fight was razor thin close and after the fight I didn't walk away with the impression that either fighter was better than the other. They seemed to be pretty even to me. It took Ward sometime to adjust to the length and power of Kovalev, which was to be expected since Kovalev is unique and Ward moved up in weight...but when he did finally adjust to Krusher's skillset, he looked every bit as good a fighter as Kovalev.
For me though, I just am much more comfortable giving the W to Kovalev and if anyone should have won it was him, the early knockdown being the sole reason for that. It should have been a draw or Kovalev should have got the W. No way he loss the fight. Although I feel the fight was super close, I thought Andre Ward loss the fight because he was reckless and off balance early and allowed Kovalev to knock him down. He should have been much sharper than that.
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