In front of a packed house at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and live on HBO Pay-Per-View, Andre "S.O.G." Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) won a close unanimous decision victory over Sergey "Krusher" Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) to capture the WBO, WBA and IBF Light Heavyweight World Titles.
Both fighters were feeling each other out in the first two rounds. The Krusher continued his come-forward attack and knocked Andre down in the second. Ward managed to get up quickly and took several hard shots from Sergey before the bell rang to end the second round.
The next several rounds included heavy shots from both fighters and some wrestling-style moments. The majority of the rounds were hard-fought and close. Many writers had the decision going to the other way but all three judges scored the bout 114-113 in favor of Ward.
After the fight, Andre Ward said, "I was not surprised when I heard the decision I don't know where you got that from. I know it was a close fight. The crowd you can hear they thought I won. I have been a champ before. I knew it was going to be a tough fight. It wasn't the first time in my career that I was dropped. He did everything I expected him to do."
"He started to show up as I expected. My coach did a great job. It's hard for me to call myself great. At the end of the day I am a two-weight division champion. Of course I would do a rematch. I am not going to negotiate a fight right now. I will go home and relax and see what's next."
