Tonight was a perfect example of why boxing's popularity has been declining

[Sid-Knee]

Why are people saying the fight was exciting?

Ward was just hugging and clinching the whole fight. Ugh

Exactly. It was a ****ing stink-fest.

[The Hammer]

Boxing is a disgrace. It was all political. Honestly if the win did go to Sergey Kovalev i would not have been interested in seeing a rematch. Ward just got beat with ease. He had his moments but....no.
The only way id watch rematch now is because Sergey was robbed. Sick of all these bullshlt Mega fights turning into mega let downs!!!!!

Yes, it's sad to see it happening.

[NoConcoms]

I'm just so happy I didn't bet on this fight. Kovalev at +120 was a steal, IMO. But I had a feeling something like this might happen. It was too close to call. And when it is that way, you know the hometown fighter is always going to get the decision. It's nonsense, but it's the way it's always been, and it's the way it always will be in boxing...........unfortunately.

[Graz]

A Columbian boxer who grew up in poverty comes to the USA and fights a much bigger privileged American boxer. He gets robbed on the scorecards, even though he deserved to win every round.

An exciting Russian boxer with three world titles fights a privileged American boxer. The Russian like the Columbian grew up in poverty, while the American boxer was the son of a prosperous businessman. The Russian gets paid $2 mil while the boring American who demands all the advantages in every fight receives $5 mil. The American does a lot of clinching and wrestling to survive in the fight. The Russian clearly wins the fight, but is robbed on the scorecards.

Why would anybody buy another PPV after tonight? Oh I know there are a few de****able people who don't mind seeing robberies as long as the African-American boxer is the one gifted the win. I see their predictable posts.

But all DECENT, HONORABLE people want fair officiating in sports, and will lose interest in boxing after they see how corrupt it is.

Sometimes fate makes the wrong man king. In this case fate was helped out a little by a biased set of judges and the "fix" was in unfortunately. Ward is a great champion but he wasn't the better man last night. Sorry.

[Weltschmerz]

Kov is not going to be able to get anything going for him to get the KO. All that illegal grappling and clinching sees to that.

Yes, Ward's grappling, holding and running likely made the difference in terms of Sergey being able to stop things singlehandedly. Ward was lucky to survive the first 3 rounds though and if Kovalev puts his foot down in a rematch, there's a good chance of him getting the KO. This is something he has to work with IMO, along with JDJ.

Boxing world long time ago wanted to see me lose but I made it! I'll back for sure and will get my titles back! Thanks to everyone for support pic.twitter.com/k9tzZSPGEw

— Sergey Kovalev (@KrusherKovalev) November 20, 2016

I scored it much like Lederman, except a couple rounds we scored differently in favor of the other guy, and vice versa, look below.

Ward did quite a lot of running and holding?? Quite a lot? Try 95 % of the time. That's all he was doing pretty much. It was one ugly affair.

You're exaggerating a bit but yes, Ward didn't come to fight, really.

[Weltschmerz]

rd1 K 10 W 9
rd2 K 10 W 8
rd3 K 10 W 9
rd4 K 10 W 9
rd5 K 10 W 9
rd6 K 10 W 9
rd7 K 9 W 10
rd8 K 9 W 10
rd9 K 9 W 10
rd10 K 10 W 9
rd11 K 9 W 10
rd12 K 10 W 9

Kovalev 116 Ward 111

[The Hammer]

rd1 K 10 W 9
rd2 K 10 W 8
rd3 K 10 W 9
rd4 K 10 W 9
rd5 K 10 W 9
rd6 K 10 W 9
rd7 K 9 W 10
rd8 K 9 W 10
rd9 K 9 W 10
rd10 K 10 W 9
rd11 K 9 W 10
rd12 K 10 W 9

Kovalev 116 Ward 111

Good scorecard.

[cork]

rd1 K 10 W 9
rd2 K 10 W 8
rd3 K 10 W 9
rd4 K 10 W 9
rd5 K 10 W 9
rd6 K 10 W 9
rd7 K 9 W 10
rd8 K 9 W 10
rd9 K 9 W 10
rd10 K 10 W 9
rd11 K 9 W 10
rd12 K 10 W 9

Kovalev 116 Ward 111

Just rewatched the fight. Had mines 115-112 kov. Had ward 4 rounds clearly and two swing rounds. Even if I gave him those swing round to ward I would still have kov winning because the kd.

Maybe I was bias though because kov was the aggressor and ward made it ugly by charging head first so many times. The card made me feel pretty ****ty about boxing though with Perez somehow getting a draw somehow and ward winning the fight with the way he fought.

[Weltschmerz]

Just rewatched the fight. Had mines 115-112 kov. Had ward 4 rounds clearly and two swing rounds. Even if I gave him those swing round to ward I would still have kov winning because the kd.

Maybe I was bias though because kov was the aggressor and ward made it ugly by charging head first so many times. The card made me feel pretty ****ty about boxing though with Perez somehow getting a draw somehow and ward winning the fight with the way he fought.

....Exactly.

There was corruption in the air and as you point out, it wasn't the main event only affected by it, sadly.

[The Hammer]

@steveucnlive Had 3 interested friends over for #KovalevWard . Been getting them into the sport, all 3 said no thanks after that decision...

— Robert Buffa II (@bmodest) November 21, 2016