For all those who complained pre-fight about Ward's clinching...

[Kigali]

For me, kovalev did too much clinching. He wore himself down with the wrestling and allowed ward to land some decent body shots while he waited for the ref to break them. He would have been better of punching his way out of some of those situations

That's spot on.

Honestly

I don't think kovalev has the stamina to punch his way out of those situations.

[Real King Kong]

That's spot on.

Honestly

I don't think kovalev has the stamina to punch his way out of those situations.

He definitely didn't want to work his way out when ward was also tying him up...but some of those clinches he initiated simply to smother ward. In those situations he could have punched out without getting stuck on the inside. He just overdid that game plan and you could see him getting tired. The longer the ref took to break them, the more kovalev struggled and ward was able to get off body shots.

[Bravado]

It was an amazing fight that i refused to even judge when i first saw it. Watched it again and i felt Sergey had his success and the KD was horrible for him on a aesthetic level because everybody hinges on it like it meant he won. Ward is fricking tough.

[Bravado]

And the best part about it???? Corny ass racist kids had to flip it into something black v white

[alexguiness]

I have to agree 100% with Bernstein.

There is (IMO) no case to give Ward the final Six rounds, however close they were.

[Zaroku]

Why is no one discussing Kov putting Ward on a head lock whenever he tried to work on the inside?! But, the ***** about Ward.

I was surprised that kovalev was a headlock master.

[Madison Boxing]

although ward wasnt anywhere as bad clinch wise as he was against kessler, he still initiated plenty of them. often threw a jab and dipped down stright into the clinch, if someone sat down and counted how many he initiated compared to kovalev there would be a vast difference

[Raonic]

Clinching has always been part of boxing, though. The only difference today from 30-40 years ago is that fighters today don't know how to combat clinching the way they used to. For whatever reason trainers don't prepare their fighters to do what Kovalev did last night, and that's their fault.

Yes but there's always limits and some fighters get away with it more than they need to. Same with pushing, elbows, rabbit punching, etc.