Neutral judges for Ward vs Kov - the NSB paradox

Andre Ward is from the Bay Area; the three judges, chosen by the Nevada commission, were from Reno, Las Vegas, and NYC. Main Events was the lead promoter for the event, and yet they raised no issue with the judges chosen for their event. lol Ward-Kovalev was a close fight; 7-5, either way would've been just fine. To hear folks like you tell it, you'd assume that everybody saw a 9-3/1-2 Kovalev fight that the judges simply stole, which isn't reality. Andre Ward won a close fight; the Nevada commission has a pretty friggin' sterling reputation is choosing competent judges to score the fights as they actual happen. get over it round 10 to ward. the fight was stolen. that was kov's second best round and a domination. they gave it to ward because they knew if kov won 1 more round he would have won the fight. thats biased garbage and a clear robbery

come on that was just an example. im not having it that 3 american judges in a fight between american and a russian is fair, thats the bottom line. ward is still there countryman. even if you dont think its a robbery its got to be considered odd that all 3 of the american judes gave the fight to the american when the vast majority of other people watching the fight gave it to kovalev. it shouldnt be an issue to have 3 judges from different countries in a fight of this magnitude, or at least 2. Andre Ward is from the Bay Area; the three judges, chosen by the Nevada commission, were from Reno, Las Vegas, and NYC. Main Events was the lead promoter for the event, and yet they raised no issue with the judges chosen for their event. lol Ward-Kovalev was a close fight; 7-5, either way would've been just fine. To hear folks like you tell it, you'd assume that everybody saw a 9-3/1-2 Kovalev fight that the judges simply stole, which isn't reality. Andre Ward won a close fight; the Nevada commission has a pretty friggin' sterling reputation is choosing competent judges to score the fights as they actual happen. get over it

rednecks ahte anybody they percieved as a trheat to their low skilled labor force :lol1: Yeah and those Euros are used to working for low labor.

Stop doing your Polls in Trailer Parks :lol1: :nonono: The Clowns you see on the internet particularly this forum don't speak for everybody!

You guys are ignoring the history of boxing. All these questions about "why" when historically everything is right there about the sport being corrupted (judges, refs, promoters). But for some reason, you all think everything is this even playing field until proven guilty. Lol...whatever generates a lot of money has foul play, including Ward vs Kovalev. America itself is corrupt.

so an american judge is considered neutral for an american fighter? lol, i'd love to see an american fighter fight in russia, 'but they are neutral judges cause they are from st petersburg and the fighter is from moscow' come on man lol. Moscow and St Petersburg are closer to each other than Oakland is to Las Vegas for ****'s sake (heck, even Oaklnd to San Diego is further apart than Moscow-St Petersburg). you played yourself. The distance difference between Oakland and New York would be akin to the difference between Moscow and Novosibirsk, Siberia. Have the governing body look at all of the boxing judges in Siberia (the Russian Boxing commission is about as suspect as the German commission, tbh), and pick out three with track records of scoring the fight fair, and there should be no issue. Flying into to Moscow, to fight a Moscow-based fighter, wit a Moscow referee, and three judges from Moscow, picked by the Moscow boxing commission, is a ****ing set-up. Kovalev didn't close the deal in the first fight, and his style is such that even his fans have the sense that he's going to get washedin the rematch. have fun settling on a better excuse, lol

All I know is Kovalev "fans" are getting their excuses ready for this next loss. Losers surround themselves with losers What "excuses"? The notion that one fighter only can win by KO creates uneven playing field, it is not imaginary, but a real contributing factor. But I've noticed a while ago that Americans care about sport integrity much less than about winning at all costs. Par for the course.

Yeah I can't speak for the redneck community but I assume they hate Europeans as well. You gotta think of ethnicities and not just color. rednecks ahte anybody they percieved as a trheat to their low skilled labor force :lol1:

Can someone explain this one to me... Most white american boxing fans I know, in person and online, are rooting for Kovalev. We know why and I have zero problem with that. But those same fans are now telling me that the american judges are biased towards Ward, because he is american, despite the judges themselves being white. So how does this work? Why arent the judges favoring Kovalev just like the fans are? Please discuss... Why are you assuming that only white americans here on NSB root for Kovalev? It is Internet, we have ppl from all over.

This is a good post. I had Kov winning myself but to pretend the judges had any bias was ridiculous. Duva hand her family have a long history in this sport. If she thought those judges were biased she would have addressed it prior to the fight. I think Szef and others make a fair point about round 10 as I thought that was a clear Kov round. IMO Duva is just posturing in case her fighter loses. Maybe it's just me, but I can't see Round 10 being decisively for either fighter, tbh. Kovalev landed the one big jab, but Kovalev left the fight in the lurch by refusing to fight when Ward engaged. to each there own, though

You had the unified champ dropping the challenger, outlanding the challenger over the course of the fight and landing more power punches than the challenger in 7 out of 12 rounds. Even so, ALL 3 AMERICAN judges gave the fight to the challenger. Typically, you have to take the belt from the residing champion in absolute fashion yet 70% or more of viewers actually felt that Kovalev, the champ, deserved to win the fight. If anyone cannot see why there is a call for "neutral" judges, then they might be in the minority.I agree with everything you say here except the part about the challenger has to win in absolute fashion to win the fight. That's wrong. The champion should get no special favors in the scoring just because he is the champion. They are fighting to determine who deserves to be the champion. It should be scored exactly the same as any other fight. You don't give all the close rounds to the champ as Pascal said when he fought Hopkins. You score the rounds as you see them. If the challenger wins a round even by the smallest of margins that round should go to the challenger. I agree Kovalev should have been the winner for the other reasons you gave. He won more rounds, landed more and harder punches and scored a knockdown.

Would ward fans be happy if there was 3 Russian judges? Why cant we just have 3 neutral judges, is it really that big a problem to sort out... How is a New York or New Jersey judge not "neutral" when Andre Ward has never fought in New York and had all of 1 fight in New Jersey? I can see the possible apprehension about having 3 California judges scoring the fight (24 of Ward's 31 fights having happened in California), but to simply write off the entire nation is foolish. Sergey Kovalev has fought 4 time in Las Vegas; Andre Ward has fought once in Las Vegas. hilarious to see folks grab at straws

All I know is Kovalev "fans" are getting their excuses ready for this next loss. Losers surround themselves with losers Only excuses I hear is from you clowns the insecurity is raidiating out y'all :lol1:

You are assuming white people are fans of Kovalev and not fans of Ward because Kovalev is white and Ward is half black. This is rarely true. There are a few posters who are racists and always root for the fighter who is the same race as themselves. Most posters just like who they like an don't favor any race. A more logically reason why someone would prefer Kovalev or Ward is their completely different fighting styles. Ward is a boxer and an in fighter who ends up wrestling a lot in almost every fight. Ward rarely scores knockdowns or KOs. Kovalev is a seek and destroy fighter who always comes forward throwing power jabs and bombs with both hands and he almost always scores a KO. That is why fans like him and not because he is white. In the first fight the judges could have scored the fight for Ward because that is how they believe the fight should be scored. It's possible they were influenced by powerful boxing people who wanted Ward to win but that can't be proven. Neutral judges from counties other than Russia or the USA would help eliminate those judges being influenced by anyone. I think it would be the right way to go but it looks like three American judges will score this rematch.

Can someone explain this one to me... Most white american boxing fans I know, in person and online, are rooting for Kovalev. We know why and I have zero problem with that. But those same fans are now telling me that the american judges are biased towards Ward, because he is american, despite the judges themselves being white. So how does this work? Why arent the judges favoring Kovalev just like the fans are? Please discuss... There's also black judges and black referees. A lot of black American boxing fans hate European or non black fighters and we know why. A logical answer is the Boxing world is small so it's more likely a fighter they are more familiar with especially a fairly popular US fighter will get any conceivable benefit over a foreign fighter. Rare exceptions have been Pacquaio (who actually only got 3 gifts all vs. 1 Mexican) and Chavez (Don King being a powerful man and WBC being corrupt).

Andre Ward has had 31 professional fights, with 24 of those fights taking place in California. The Kovalev fight was Ward's first fight in Las Vegas (with one fight in New Jersey, one in the Cayman Islands, one in St Lucia, one in Connecticut, one in Oregon, one in Florida, and one in Tennesse; 4 of the trips away happening in his first 10 pro fights). Kovalev has had 4 fights in Las Vegas, with another handful in New Jersey, and fights across the East coast and other states. Glen Trowbridge is from Las Vegas, Burt Clements is from Reno, and John Mckiae is from New York, three markets that Andre Ward had never fought in. The Nevada State Athletic Commission is arguably the best boxing commission on the planet; CJ Ross blunder aside, you don't see many ridiculous scorecards coming out of Nevada, and they seem to like to keep it that way. Kovalev couldn't close the deal, and the entire narrative was built around Kovalev being this destroyer; when the pre-determined outcome doesn't happen folks spazz out, especially once the realize that the rematch will be a quite similar fight. The plan was already set; after ending the run of the faded Bernard Hopkins, Sergey Kovalev was going to step into the ring with one of the p4p best fighters on the planet, the last American male Olympic boxing gold medalist, and a fighter who hadn't been beat since he was 13 years old, and emphatically show the world that he was truly the sport's best fighter (with HBO putting the rocket on his back, and not having to bother with Andre Ward any longer as his deal would be up). Ward didn't follow the script, so other things have been drug up to now try and salvage the original story This is a good post. I had Kov winning myself but to pretend the judges had any bias was ridiculous. Duva hand her family have a long history in this sport. If she thought those judges were biased she would have addressed it prior to the fight. I think Szef and others make a fair point about round 10 as I thought that was a clear Kov round. IMO Duva is just posturing in case her fighter loses.

All I know is Kovalev "fans" are getting their excuses ready for this next loss. Losers surround themselves with losers

I think it has more to do with boxing politics more than race. There's no doubt the judges are corrupt but proving it is almost impossible. For some reason Ward got the nod in this fight. In another close fight, Jacobs didn't get the nod in his own back yard. I can't even begin to explain how Timothy Bradley got the nod against Pacquiao in the first fight. I agree with Ward if he went against having neutral judges. We just don't change the rules because of one fight. Kovalev need to take the judges out the equation if he's that concerned about the scoring.

Can someone explain this one to me... Most white american boxing fans I know, in person and online, are rooting for Kovalev. We know why and I have zero problem with that. But those same fans are now telling me that the american judges are biased towards Ward, because he is american, despite the judges themselves being white. So how does this work? Why arent the judges favoring Kovalev just like the fans are? Please discuss... Take race out of it you idiot. This is a world title fight and world title fights in the majority of territories have international judges. Plain and simple.

You had the unified champ dropping the challenger, outlanding the challenger over the course of the fight and landing more power punches than the challenger in 7 out of 12 rounds. Even so, ALL 3 AMERICAN judges gave the fight to the challenger. Typically, you have to take the belt from the residing champion in absolute fashion yet 70% or more of viewers actually felt that Kovalev, the champ, deserved to win the fight. If anyone cannot see why there is a call for "neutral" judges, then they might be in the minority.