Even the rematch?
Even the rematch. Kovalev was ahead on the cards with anyone who knows how to score properly. Forget those with extreme bias and an agenda. Ward then wacked Kovalev in the balls 3 times and had the corrupt ref stop it. The corrupt ref even came out afterwards and admitted his actions were wrong because there was no getting away with the cheating that was on display that night. Just like the first time.
Had this been done to Ward in Russia, you'd have a very different tune to play.
Obviously SOG. He beat the real Krusher, when everyone had him P4P top 3-4, calling him a killer and an ATG, etc etc. Canelo beat an old, shot Kovalev who'd lost 3 of his last 7, and been paid off to not hit too hard.
Tough to say but I would go with Ward. Ward did face a more prime version of Kovalev who seemed like he came to win. I had Ward losing the 1st fight but saw him winning the 2nd even without the borderline shots.
I give Canelo props but something seemed weird during the entire duration of that fight like Kovalev did not want to be there.
kovalev is nowhere near his prime in fall of 2019. ward fought him at the height of his powers. i thought he lost the first fight in that regard ward fought the better fighter. canelo woudlnt even fight prime kovalev, and you know it. he wouldn't fight prime golovkin. he's made a career of this. cotto, golovkin, kovalev, mosley, the list goes on. doesn't make him a bad fighter, it's just reality.
what canelo did was fight a rather listless fight until and old guy slowed down, and knocked him out. canelo is a terrific puncher nad has the trappings of a knockout artist. ward can't break a grape, he's got bad hands, and he's a boxer by nature. comparing the "knockouts" even if ward's was fishy at best in fight 2 isn't fair.
that said, if the second kovalev fight goes on 2 more rounds kovalev would have been stopped, and you know it!
so do you take the knockout of the guy canelo woudln't have fought if he was prime, or the close victory and the wide victory over kovalev at the height of his powers?
i'm taking the win over prime kovalev. again, canelo would not fight kovalev if he was prime, that tells you what you need to know. he ahsn't been the same for years. took an L to a fringe elidier alvarez, hurt seriously by anthony yarde, just a clearly depleted, all but shot fighter.
convincingly?
canelo. cleaner knockout.
more impressively? ward. he beat the dude in his f#cking prime, man.
Ward won the 2nd fight more impressively. Why? Because Kov wasnt shopworn, hadnt been ko'd before and wasnt old.
But the gap between Kov fighting Ward and Canelo was about a year?
I feel that you possibly haven't watched the fight. You should watch it.
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/IdealisticWavyBlackrhino-size_restricted.gif
He was teeing off on his ball sack and it was recorded by a hundred different cameras at a hundred different angles. The argument isn't that he didn't low-blow Kovalev, it was that it was "accidental, the ref couldn't see, and Kovalev was wobbled from an earlier punch".
Low blows weren't even borderline. Bullseye nut shots & he punched a couple inches lower his hand would have passed through Kovalev's legs.
I don't know if the judges rigged the first fight but they were definitely paid off by Roc Nation during the event. Hooker (RocNation) vs Perez on the undercard was blatantly fixed. Hooker barely through a punch the entire fight, was embarrassed by Perez, and was awarded a "courtesy" draw for being a Roc Nation prospect. Even the shill announcers lost their composure for that one and just kind of went silent.
https://www.badlefthook.com/2016/11/19/13689332/kovalev-vs-ward-results-darleys-perez-robbed-by-judges-draws-with-maurice-hooker
I don't know ward as a person. Maybe he's a decent guy. But for a period anything RocNation touched was flamboyantly rigged against the other promoter. You had to knock them out cold to win.
I've seen that gif many times and seen the fight multiple times. That shot in the gif was borderline low, just above the B in Hublot, and not an attempt to deliberately hit him low. Kovalev was bending over trying to protect his body, and maybe 40% of the glove hit a beltline, which the ref already said was too high. I've seen a lot of the angles from photos and videos, and the "ball sack" shots that people claim to have seen, were actually "deduced" from obstructed video angles and possible trajectory extrapolation. Still, with Kov bending so low, he was almost at a 60-degree angle, it's hard to deduce clearly. I find it frustrating too that there were no photos or camera angles that clearly validate it, like with the clarity you saw with Crawford and Khan. Now that was a clear 100% low blow, 100% below the beltline.
Fixing is when 1 or 2 judges have ridiculous scores. Do you know how hard it would be to pay three judges to see the fight Ward's way?
All of them saw it the same way. And they were judging the same type of fight the same way in the second fight. Ward won both fights. Interesting how we cannot get one single shot, not even a camera shot from the side where Ward hit Kovalev low to confirm it...not even one sports photographer or fan...amazing
I feel that you possibly haven't watched the fight. You should watch it.
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/IdealisticWavyBlackrhino-size_restricted.gif
He was teeing off on his ball sack and it was recorded by a hundred different cameras at a hundred different angles. The argument isn't that he didn't low-blow Kovalev, it was that it was "accidental, the ref couldn't see, and Kovalev was wobbled from an earlier punch".
Low blows weren't even borderline. Bullseye nut shots & he punched a couple inches lower his hand would have passed through Kovalev's legs.
I don't know if the judges rigged the first fight but they were definitely paid off by Roc Nation during the event. Hooker (RocNation) vs Perez on the undercard was blatantly fixed. Hooker barely through a punch the entire fight, was embarrassed by Perez, and was awarded a "courtesy" draw for being a Roc Nation prospect. Even the shill announcers lost their composure for that one and just kind of went silent.
https://www.badlefthook.com/2016/11/19/13689332/kovalev-vs-ward-results-darleys-perez-robbed-by-judges-draws-with-maurice-hooker
I don't know ward as a person. Maybe he's a decent guy. But for a period anything RocNation touched was flamboyantly rigged against the other promoter. You had to knock them out cold to win.
Canelo without a doubt!
Robert Byrd robbed Ward of a sensational highlight reel end cuz he was on his way to flattening Kovalev!
While Canelo absolutely brutally knocked him out and nearly out of the ring!
Kovalev didn’t even know where he was and sounded concussed in the post fight interview while against Ward he clearly coherent!
People hating on Canelo cuz they just couldn’t fathom that Canelo would knockout Kovalev like that, but this is boxing and it’s called the theatre of the unknowns for a reason!
Not to mention he moved up 2 weight classes and no time up!
Man these really aren't comparable at all.
I know on boxingscene everything comes down to "which side you're on" and for example on this topic, you're pitting the "ward/floyd army" against the "canelo army", and everyone just comes in, clicks for their team the poll looks competitive.
But the ward fights were a public embarrassment. They were not legitimate events.
There were blatant fixed judging on the undercards justifying legal investgation (perez vs hooker). If you don't think fixing exists go watch that. Later in the night they went against 80% of media scores for ward's first "win".
In the second fight he saw Kovalev wobbled, blatantly teed off to the bottom his athletic cup worse than Golota vs Bowe, then when Kov bent over at the waist the ref jumped on him and called it a KO.
Great roleplaying from the announcer team watching a slow motion uppercut to the balls knocking his cup around then saying "wow looks like a beautiful liver shot. Kovalev seems to have shat his liver into the bottom of his trunks. Great strategy by Ward.".
As far as I can tell Canalo punched a faded Kovalev in the face. People are wondering if it was a fix just because it looked weird and boxing is dirty.
OK. fine.
But it wasn't a narrated documentary on how the boxing underworld functions like the ward-kovalev events were.
Fixing is when 1 or 2 judges have ridiculous scores. Do you know how hard it would be to pay three judges to see the fight Ward's way?
All of them saw it the same way. And they were judging the same type of fight the same way in the second fight. Ward won both fights. Interesting how we cannot get one single shot, not even a camera shot from the side where Ward hit Kovalev low to confirm it...not even one sports photographer or fan...amazing
Both fights were close but Ward knocked Kovalev out three round quicker.
Agreed. Before Ward, nobody knew how to beat Kovalev, including Hopkins and Jones. After Ward, even Yarde had a shot. Ward beat the Krusher. Canelo beat the Krushed
Canelo did. And I've been called a Canelo hater. Ward LOST the first fight, and had to crush the Krushers balls in order to win in the second fight.
I’m with you. My living room had Kovalev beating Ward. Ward got knocked down, and then the narrative became Ward the underdog hero. Ward got credit for surviving whiles Kovalev got knocked for not finishing the job. I’m not sure how I feel about the second fight. Kovalev was wilting, but I think there was sum low shots. Ref looked more frustrated with Kovalev than anything. Here Ward is in the position to come out of retirement make huge money and fight a much smaller guy. We will somehow give him credit just for making the fight if he actually does. That’s not really fair.
Obviously Canelo but let's not act like he wasn't losing on the cards and didn't already buy the win. Kovalev did NOT try to win. Period.
Not sure if Kovalev simply got old