By Radio Rahim
Two weeks ago at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, very few people had a closer ringside seat than Hall of Fame ring announcer Michael Buffer.
He watched closely for twelve rounds, as Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs) got off the floor to win a unanimous decision over Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26KOs) to capture the WBO, WBA, IBF light heavyweight titles.
The decision was controversial, with ongoing debates between both sides over which fighter was the rightful winner.
The three official judges had identical scores of 114-113. Buffer felt they got it wrong, as he scored the fight for Kovalev and admits he was a little surprised when he first read the official scores.
Buffer was also disappointed with the lack of action in the contest. Outside of Ward going down in the second round, neither fighter was very active with his hands and there was a lot of holding.
"I was surprised at the scoring and there were a lot of people who agreed with me. I scored it for Kovalev to win the fight, but there could have been more action actually. There was a lot of holding where the referee didn't break them up as soon as he could have. But that's the way it goes," Buffer told BoxingScene.com.
"I think you and I had actually talked before the fight, and I said that a super promotion like this might not end up being the best fight. And while it turned out to be close and the scoring was maybe strange to some people - it could have been a better fight. There wasn't a lot of action. I think each fighter landed an average of 11 punches per round - that's not a lot of combat. There was so much wrestling and grappling in the fight. [Kovalev's promoter] Kathy Duva had made a comment that it was like an MMA fight."
Buffer felt Kovalev could have won a lot of the close rounds if he would have used his jab more often.
"I think if he would have thrown an extra half dozen jabs per round it could have pulled it out for him. He has a good jab and he didn't use it," Buffer said.
