Floyd will come into this fight extremely defensive. No way does he open up enough to get KO'd by Connor.
Connor's only chance is to land a flush Hail Mary.
This fight was just about dead even going into the 8th. Ward had a very strong 8th round and hurt Kov but didnt hurt him to the extent where the fight should have been waved off. Especially given the shots that landed just prior to the stoppage.
I've been watching boxing since 1986 and this is the first time I've ever seen a fight stopped on low blows/body punches where the fighter didnt go down.
We cant just assume that Ward would have stopped him anyway as I see many posters doing. These are 2 champs in a very close fight. Let it play out.
Anyone who feels this was a justified stoppage either isn't a true boxing fan, such a Ward Nhugger that they dont care that it was a bs stoppage, or just flat out hate Kov and want to see him lose at all cost whether justified or not.
Now I'm not much of a Ward fan but I respect his skills and accomplishments. This fight was about dead even coming into the 8th round. One can say that Kov was up 4 rounds to 3, or an argument can be made that Ward was up 4 rounds to 3.
You guys can argue all day long about whether those blows were low or not. The main issue for me is the stoppage. It was premature and reeked of bias. Never in the history of me watching this sport have I even seen a stoppage where one fighter gets hit with 3 questionable low blows back to back, folds over from them without going down, and the ref stops the fight!
No Kovalev was not "stopped". The ref prematurely stopped it. Yes the momentum was swinging Wards way and he could have very well gotten a legitimate stoppage, but we cant predict what would have or could have happened and say things like "well Ward was going to stop him anyway". That's not how this sport works.
With that said.....Kov needs to dump Kathy Duva.
You just did watch this:
https://j.gifs.com/wjWQlr.gif
The crazy part is, the ref was right there staring at the low blow yet decided to stop it rather than warn or deduct a point from Dre and give Kov time to recover.
Spence got 6M on national TV & idk if he's legit a star yet.
I'm not even sure what exactly a star in boxing means. You can sell x PPV's? You've made x money? You are known by x% of people? The bigger question is wtf is the definition of a star in boxing?
I guess mainly idk that a star is simply about ratings.
I'm still scratching my head at how Spence pulled in 6M views. None of the casual fans that I know even know who Spence is.
I feel comfortable saying that Ward lost the first fight with Kov and although he was the better fighter in the rematch, it wasnt a definitive win due to the B.S stoppage.
Skill is always great to watch for students of the sport, the calls of boring are from fans that don't even know what they are looking at so its boring lol .
Has nothing to do with not knowing what you're looking at in order to be or not be entertained.
I've been watching the sport since 1986. The fact is, even the most skilled fighters have the tendency to be boring at times.
Rigo is a perfect example.
Loma is a highly skilled fighter who is actually quite entertaining. He has an amazing offense and defense, and throws punches in bunches without being reckless. He's a pure pleasure to watch.
tko stand for technical knockout not tainted knockout. The win isn't tainted even though the stoppage was bad.
Well it's a tainted win as a result of the win coming via terrible stoppage.
Coming into the 8th round the fight was pretty even. 4-3 for either fighter is within reason. Maybe Kov would have recovered or maybe Ward would have stopped him. We'll never know because of a terrible call to stop it by tony weeks.
Who the hell goes out of their way to create a fake tony weeks account? Mind you, this account was created before the controversy surrounding his stoppage last sat.
No matter how big of a ward fan you are, you cannot honestly say that you're happy with the way the fight ended.
Low blows or not, that was a BS stoppage that also robbed Ward of a clear and legitimate stoppage that he probably would have gotten had the fight continued.
Yes it's a win, but like the first fight, a tainted win.
What hurt Haymon/PBC was its inconsistency. It's hard to build a following when you have your fighters fighting on several different networks, on different days of the week, all on different slot times.
Golota is the low blow king. He doesnt even try to sneak them in like Ward. He's blatant with it.
With that said....Ward is the best lowblower in the game. He actually got a tko win courtesy of a 3 punch low blow combo!
Wondering whether his purses will be reduced due to this. Subscription channels are inherently richer than free TV
Also, I guess these fights will be televised on BT Sport in the UK, right?
The way I see it is, reduced purses with more dates > no purse with hardly any dates available on the major networks.
What I find strange is how they didn't interview Weeks after the fight to get his take on the stoppage like they usually do after a ref is involved in a contraversial stoppage.