By Edward Chaykovsky
IBF, WBO, WBA light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) is shocked with some of the critics who believe Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26 KOs) beat him by as much as five points on the scorecards.
Ward recovered from a second round knockdown to win a close twelve round unanimous decision over Kovalev at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. All three judges scored it 114-113.
Most observers felt the fight was close - an opinion Ward shares. There is an ongoing debate over the outcome, with some fans and punidts scoring the contest for Kovalev by as much as five points.
Ward saw no controversy with the outcome and he's tired of critics claiming the fight was a robbery, and the continuous attacks against the officials and the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
"No question I won the fight," Ward told Rolling Stone. "If a person thought I lost the fight, god bless you, that's your opinion, we can agree to disagree. No big deal. But anybody crying robbery or attacking the judges or the Nevada State Athletic Commission, they've officially gone too far."
"That's not the first tight fight or close fight that's taken place in the history of boxing. They happen, especially when the best fight the best. It's just amazing to me that – and I'm not just talking fans, I'm talking boxing media – that it was some kind of robbery or that we didn't deserve to win."
Regarding some of the opinions that Kovalev won by as much as five points - Ward says there is no way possible that Kovalev won by five points, four or even three.
"If you feel Kovalev edged it out or whatever the case may be, that's fine. But anybody crying 'robbery,' it just doesn't add up. There's no way you can say he won the fight by three, four, five points. It just didn't happen. We got up from that knockdown and we took over the fight and we took it to another gear. Kovalev didn't match that," Ward said.
There was an immediate rematch clause, which Kovalev exercised. Their respective promoters will be negotiating the fight in the coming days.
