By Keith Idec
Sergey Kovalev’s immediate complaint following his controversial loss to Andre Ward was that each of the three judges assigned to score their fight is American.
All of them – Nevada’s Burt Clements, New York’s John McKaie and Nevada’s Glenn Trowbridge – scored that 12-round fight for Ward by the same slim margin, 114-113, on November 19 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Nevada State Athletic Commission has assigned three more American judges – Connecticut’s Glenn Feldman, Nevada’s Dave Moretti and New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld – to score the Ward-Kovalev rematch, but that doesn’t concern Russia’s Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs).
The former IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion said during a conference call Tuesday that he is confident he can beat Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) on June 17 in Las Vegas if their rematch also goes to the scorecards. Ward, a native of Hayward, California, won a gold medal for the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
“I believe that the judges will do their best job, what they should do,” Kovalev said. “I believe in these judges because my promoter, Kathy Duva, [wanted] these judges because they never [made] mistakes before. And let’s just see June 17th. I don’t think about who is gonna [judge] this fight or something. I should do my best job in the ring. This fight is for the boxing fans. If something bad happens, everybody will see what happens.
“It is most important what will be seen by boxing fans, not the decision. Because the last decision was wrong and all people, boxing fans, know what happened. And right now, nobody recognizes Andre Ward as a champion. And he should prove June 17th that he’s a real champion, not me. He needs to prove that he deserves to wear these belts. But I just have to get into the ring and kick his ass. I wanna punish him. I wanna punish him and get my belts back.”
Feldman, Moretti and Weisfeld are considered consistently accurate judges within the boxing industry. Duva discussed the possibility of assigning at least one judge from outside the United States with the NSAC, but she is satisfied with the three judges chosen to work this HBO Pay-Per-View main event.
“I asked the Nevada Commission to appoint judges, the very, very best ... so that the decision of the judges did not become the story this time,” said Duva, chief executive officer for Main Events, Kovalev’s promoter. “We all have a right to speak to the commission [about appointing judges] and I would’ve been remiss if I had not.
“The panel of judges they have chosen this time have a great deal of experience. I don’t think they’re likely to be swayed by the crowd. I don’t think they’re likely to make mistakes – hopefully. But in the end, they’re human and mistakes happen. So Sergey knows that this time he has to win very convincingly and he will. And I’m happy with the judges.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.