By Miguel Rivera
WBA, WBO, IBF light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs) had to switch up his style and make big adjustments after getting knocked down in the second round of Saturday's fight with Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Ward, after getting knocked down, was able to box his way to a twelve round unanimous decision to hand Kovalev his first career defeat and left the ring with the Russian fighter's three titles.
The three official judges had it for Ward by one point, 114-113, but there were many fans and many ringside observers who disagreed with the outcome. Many had Kovalev winning with scores of 115-112 and 114-113.
Ward was very pleased with his performance. After making his light heavyweight debut in March, he won two fights before getting in the ring with Kovalev per the terms of their agreement that was finalized a year ago.
"Being that I picked on the guy that I picked on and went straight at him after two fights this year, and not a lot of fights before that. And being that we got off the canvas and showed grit, determination and a lot of heart - without watching the tape I think I performed well," Ward told ESPN Deportes.
"Obviously there are always things that I can pick apart and wish I did better, but sometimes its not about a technical fight. If you always want to be one-dimensional and always be cute and always pick and poke - and think that you're always going to win your fights - sometimes you're not. Sometimes you have get grimy, sometimes you have to get dirty, sometimes you have to take the heart of the other man - and I think we slowly did that tonight with Kovalev."
Besides the knockdown, Ward maintains that he was never affected by any of Kovalev's landed shots.
"I wasn't hurt by anything that he threw after that [knockdown]. I give him credit. Of course he's going to think he won, he's going to cry robbery, but that's part of the sport," Ward said.