if Smoger was the ref Kovalev would leave on a stretcher

I agree I have ish weeks would have let Ward keep Beating on Kovalev until he went to the canvas. Ward is too nice in my opinion every time Kovalev started begging he stopped and waited for the ref. He needs to keep Punching until the ref physically stops him

Smogger is the man. Ward/Froch was awesome. When fighters are in there with Steve, they don't complain and wait because they know he's not going to pamper.

It robbed us of seeing Kovalev stay on the floor...he was not getting up. The ref stopped it when Brook quit. The ref stopped it when Kovalev quit. It's not the refs job to say "come on....get up and go out there..I don't want to rob you of a potential comeback" :lol1: Remember Kovalev had already turned his back to Ward It robbed of seeing Kovalev stay on the floor...he was not getting up. Which was the point I was making in my first reason for why the stoppage was a robbery. This robbed Ward from winning by a clean, convincing and an uncontroversial knockout. The referee should've allowed the fight to continue until Sergey Kovalev went down to the floor and failed to make it back up on time to the 10 count. Then, Ward would've won by a uncontroversial KNOCKOUT win! Otherwise, it remains a speculation on your behalf to claim Kovalev would've went down and stayed down. If it was going to happen, it should've happened and the referee should've allowed it to happen. That's my point! The ref stopped it when Brook quit. That was because Kell Brook's corner threw in the towel which is a totally different scenario. If a boxer's corner throws in the towel, then the fight has to be stopped! Kell Brook himself didn't quit! The ref stopped it when Kovalev quit. Sergey Kovalev was still in the ring and was still standing. If Kovalev really wanted to quit, he would've went down and be purposefully counted out (like Mike Tyson did in some of his fights) or simply left the ring purposefully (like Andrew Golota did against Mike Tyson). It's not the refs job to say "come on....get up and go out there..I don't want to rob you of a potential comeback" No, but it's the referee's job to allow the fight to continue in a controversial scenario where practically nobody is sure if the fighter in question isn't able to continue. In other words, a fight that is meant to solve controversy from the past isn't meant to create more controversy. In other words, if the referee doesn't ABSOLUTELY have to stop the fight and is in a situation where he is able to allow the fight to continue for longer, then he should. The fact that Andre Ward is a feather fist is a further reason why the fight should've continued. If Sergey Kovalev were to get knocked out unconscious by this feather fist, then Kovalev absolutely should deserve to suffer such a fate. Kovalev had already turned his back to Ward. Andre Ward exposed his back many times to Sergey Kovalev in both fights. Sergey Kovalev doing it only once doesn't mean the fight has to be stopped. Heck, even Guillermo Rigondeaux turned his back at least once against Nonito Donaire. Doesn't mean the fight had to be stopped because of that.

I wish Smoger HAD been the ref. He would have let Kovalev get f*cked up good and proper, which he was on his way to. And there would be none of this needless controversy.

Kovalev was not going to continue even if given the chance. He was emptied out. He sat his ass on the ropes and that's where he was going to stay no matter what the ref did.:boxing: Well then that's what should have happened. Instead of the referee stopping the fight in that manner, either let Kovalev get knocked out unconscious (by the featherfisted Andre Ward) or allow Kovalev to make his own decision on quitting without the referee doing it for him first. The fight was a robbery for various different reasons: 1) It robbed Ward from a clean, convincing and an uncontroversial knockout. 2) It robbed Kovalev from making a potential comeback late in the fight.

Totally agree.

Then they should have let him get KTFO. Boxing has a way of turning every big fight into some kind of circus. Let us have our clean KO and have nothing to moan about.