Former super middleweight king Andre Ward overcame an early knockdown and torrid first half of the fight to capture the unified light heavyweight championship away from Sergey Kovalev by way of unanimous decision in Las Vegas - and claimed away the WBA Super, WBO and IBF championship belts at the T-Mobile Arena in a fight shown live on HBO pay per view.
The beginning of the bout went less than smoothly for the Californian as he struggled to get to grips with Kovalev’s timing and reach. Before the fight, Kovalev had vowed to “kick his ass” and in the first few minutes it looked as though all was going to plan, as a jab splayed Ward’s defense and sent him reeling in the opening stanza.
It got worse for Ward in the second, when a thunderous straight right dropped him hard for only the second knockdown of his career. Ward rose smiling, but he had been hurt, something Kovalev sensed, and the Chelyabinsk man moved in to finish, but the 2004 Olympic gold medalist held on for the bell.
In the middle rounds, the fight leveled out as Ward began to cut the ring off and land his own crisp punches. His sharp jab began to snap Kovalev’s head back, but ‘Krusher’ held firm and still fired off shots of his own, regardless of Ward’s pinpoint blows.
From round seven, Ward was fully established as back in the fight, boxing at a distance and managing to slip many of Kovalev’s blows. The Chelyabinsk fighter still showed why he was rated number one in the division, however, and dominated in parts.
The final round was fought with the same electricity as the preceding eleven, and the crowd stood to shower the two boxers with applause in the last ten seconds of the fight.
Kovalev raised his hand at the sound of the bell, but the judges ultimately awarded the fight unanimously to Ward by three identical scores of 114-113, handing him the belts and the coveted title of best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. Ward has not lost a competitive boxing match since age 14.
Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi, who was watching from ringside, agreed with the judges and scored the fight for Ward.
"I thought they both fought a tactically desirable fight but I had Ward ahead. He landed the better shots, he did the better work. Listen, Kovalev did good work too. It was tit-for-tat but Andre bossed the fight. In the later part of the fight he was bossing it physically and you could see Kovalev almost tiring on the inside, while Andre you could see had a little more left," Malignaggi said on the Sky Sports broadcast.
"Kovalev deserves some respect too. He was up on the ropes to get some appreciation from the crowd. He deserves a hand too. This was a close fight and I wouldn't mind the rematch at all. I have to disagree with some of the media guys because all they do is score pressure - even it it's ineffective. You have to make sure it's effective."
