Comments Thread For: Kovalev Promoter Extremely Disappointed' in Referee Byrd

[Bronx2245]

His entire game plan was suspect. He was suckered into chasing Ward instead of cutting the ring-off. He looked stupid. That knockdown was probably the worst thing that happened for him because that's all he tried the entire fight afterwards. He wasted way too much time and energy trying to recapture the 2nd round feeling. As a boxer you not only have to forget about bad rounds and readjust but even GOOD rounds you sometimes should forget about them and readjust as well...IMO. He got too C ocky and confident. He's probably still reliving the 2nd round and wondering WTF happened.

Kovalev ignored the body and Ward didn't! Kovalev didn't have a Plan B and Ward did! However, with the KD, Kovalev should've been the winner!

[Bronx2245]

Byrd did an ok job. he still should have broken them up sooner - when a clinch turns into a grappling match after 5 seconds or so - and few if any punches have been thrown, or can be thrown - its time to separate them. Continued grappling means its turning into a competition of strength rather than just boxing.

I recommended a casual friend catch a stream of this. I haven't called him yet since the fight but I know he won't be thanking me.

I expect and hope that Walters-Loma will be a far better spectacle than this was.

I think Byrd was fine, but I won't be paying $65 to see the rematch!

[Sid-Knee]

Wrong. Ward would duck in, grab Kovalev, then try to sneak in body shots and forearms. Ward initiated OFFENSIVE HOLDING. As a defense since the ref was so bad, Kovalev responded with DEFENSIVE HOLDING.

So did Kovalev hold as defense? Yes, but only as defense against WARD INITIATING HOLDING. So no, Kovalev was not "the one" clinching. He was one of two fighters clinching, after WARD initiated clinches. Period. And the ref should have stopped Ward's cheating, then Kovalev wouldn't have had to grab back to defend himself from it.

In the end though all the ref did was make a 10-2 Kovalev win into an 8-4 Kovalev win. The rest is on the judges. It still was an obvious result but they were biased too.

Finally someone with a bit of decency to them. Ward was disgusting. Full stop. It's not Kovs fault that Ward is a cheat, he had to do something because the ref sure as hell wasn't going to help him.

[ironalex]

Byrd was great last night and that's coming from a Kovalev fan, Duva stfu.

Always liked Kathy from her time handling Tomasz Adamek and I'm not opposed to her doing the 'sour grapes' as opposed to Sergey doing it as to build a rematch yet last night the officials nailed it bang on, all of them.

Truth be told I would have felt a draw or maybe even a 114-113 for Kovalev would not have been unfair, again I'll reiterate I felt the right man won though but can understand why Kovalev felt hard done by, it must be noted though Kovalev looked lost for parts of the mid-latter rounds as though he felt his power wasnt ineffectual hence why I favoured Ward when he was putting the hurt on the Russian.

Anybody who has read what Paulie Malignaggi said about the fight knows that's exactly how it played out, he's completely unbiased too.

Lol where do I start. Let's start with Pauline...so Pauline never is ever biased?...he had Bradley beating pacman.....he had floyd (his idol) 5 rounds up against maidens in their first fight. That guido is all about dick riding.....and complaining.

Moving along...at what point was Andre putting the hurt on Sergey?....he was putting the holding and hitting the low blows et al on him no doubt. But the actual boxing and power punches were from only Sergey. Andre doesn't box....he smothers and makes fights ugly, although to his credit he did land a good few jabs

**** a scorecard watch the fight and tell me who looked and acted the way of the winner. Wards camp were so happy when the decision was announced they probably would of let trump "stick it to em"

Ward was only dropped once last night ....remember ward doesn't lie

As for Byrd he's useless. He doesn't let opponents breathe on floyd but let's all that rough housing **** occur by Andre with his hitting and holding and smothering. He also was celebrating with Andre in the post decision scenes. Unbiased though right?! Hold up ....floyd is black....Andre's black....maybe if kova was black he might of got a fair shake


It wasn't a robbery but absolutely kovalev won the fight...you saying Andre won?...get the **** outta here!

[MOMENTO MORI]

clinching is fine but wrapping kovalev up around the legs, only to knock him off balance was cheap. Byrd should have cut that shyt out real as soon as it happened.

[ruedboy]

Hatton must be saying where was the Byrd when I fought Mayweather. LOL
Seriously, when a ref can determine if a fight is won or lost by how he interprets the rules, it don't seem right.

[deejd]

Blaming everybody but himself for not walking Ward down behind that heavy leather he throws. Ward didn't have anything to discourage Kovalev from taking a punch to land his own.

[Dr Rumack]

Kovalev did a much better job of neutralising Ward on the inside than I expected.

[JASON SHAW]

don't talk about your mother like that you little rat.

stop crying because your ugly mother botox duva got exposed as a lying ****....

[noStylez]

Byrd is horrible...always has been, he's a slack fat lazy ref.