By Edward Chaykovsky
According to WBO, WBA, IBF light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs), a big factor in last Saturday's victory over Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26KOs) was the ability to stay mentally strong throughout the entire fight.
Ward won his worlds titles with narrow twelve round unanimous decision over Kovalev at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
He was able to win on a single point margin, 114-113, with all three of the official judges.
Ward feels that the majority of Kovalev's past opponents were mentally fractured before they ever stepped foot in the ring.
"This is no disrespect to him, but Sergey has a bully mentality..... His style, his approach, his demeanor. And if you look at all of his fights, and I take nothing away from him and he fought some really great guys, but they were intimidated. They came in half beat and I was determined my whole career to never let that happen. If you beat me you earn it and not because I was intimidated," Ward told Sky Sports.
After surviving a second round knockdown and preventing further big shots from landing, Ward felt Kovalev was mentally affected.
"It was about those in the trenches [moments] and he doesn't have an inside game. He wants to meet you at range, so I was trying to perfect my mid-range and inside game and that's what pulled it out for us," Ward said.
"Guys that he fights are not there 7, 8, 9 [rounds in]. I think he realized that I wasn't going anywhere and that did something to him. He couldn't get rid of me and I was also stepping on the gas inside, starting the exchanges, finishing the exchanges. He would land a big shot and I would come right back. That kind of thing breaks a puncher like that because he depends on his power so much."
