I thought Ward needs to hold and headbutt to win?

[Cutthroat]

That's what they've been telling me for years.

Instead it was Kovalev doing all the holding, even grabbing on the ropes. Did the ref ever take a point away or even come close? Nope. What about the headbutts by Ward? elbows? low blows? Nope, nope nope. They said he'd be nothing without his "dirty tactics", yet he proved them all wrong.

Crazy to think this isn't even prime SOG, he's obviously declined a bit. It took Ward a few rounds to snap back into that old mentality he once had and as soon as he did he started to take control.

[-Hyperion-]

nah he just needs to finish a round without getting his ass kicked to win it. i mean he won 2 clear rounds to kovalevs 5 but every razor thin round where he sometimes got outlanded or nicked it by a jab went his way.....all of them....

[1hourRun]

Great thread OP...We seen Ward use his Ring-Generalship and Defense to take it from Kovalev ; Dre dictated where and how the trade took place Kovalev fans claimed he was going to walk Ward down -- I didn't see none of that on the contrary I seen Ward pushing him back and meeting his jab standing toe to toe. How many times did you see Kovalevs head getting snapped back? the jabs to the body and work around the midsection clearly took the fight out of Kovalev but I get the feeling these guys were looking for headshots, disregarding the who was dictating the pace and making the other man miss more often.