By Keith Idec
The first fight between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev was extremely competitive and had its fair share of dramatic moments.
The second round was the most memorable of the 12 because Kovalev dropped Ward with 42 seconds left in it and Ward showed tremendous resolve as he fended off the Russian knockout artist to get back in the fight. The controversial conclusion – a Ward win by the same score, 114-113, on all three cards – made the outcome one of the most debated decisions in recent boxing history.
Their 12-round encounter also included a lot of holding and wrestling that made it difficult for fight fans to embrace Ward-Kovalev as a classic. The true measure of how much consumers appreciated their first fight largely will be determined by how many of them are willing to pay $65 to watch their June 17 rematch in HD.
Their November 19 bout drew roughly 162,000 pay-per-view buys, a disappointing figure considering the magnitude of that light heavyweight title fight. Ward is confident fans will buy their rematch a week from Saturday night, but the undefeated two-division champion won’t box in a reckless manner simply to deliver what might be perceived to be a more entertaining performance.
“I think the first fight was a great fight,” Ward said during a conference call Wednesday. “I think there was a lot of drama in the first fight, more drama than I wanted. And I think it was a tremendous fight. And I believe Round Two is gonna be a tremendous fight. You’ve gotta realize it’s not a video game – it’s real life. So you’ve gotta live it out, you’ve gotta fight it out, you’ve gotta play it out and you’ve gotta let it be what it’s gonna be.
“As the guy that’s in there, you can’t come in there and dictate what type of event it’s gonna be and how many people are gonna love it and how many people are not gonna love it. You just have to go in there and do what you have to do. And then when you step back, you hope it’s something that everybody appreciated and they felt was worth paying for.”
The rematch between the 33-year-old Ward (31-0, 15 KOs), of Hayward, California, and the 34-year-old Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs), of Kopeysk, Russia, will headline HBO Pay-Per-View’s four-fight telecast June 17 from Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT; $64.99 in HD).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.