Andre Ward needed a real controversial fight like Kovalev

[-Kev-]

Pacquiao had Marquez 1, 3 and 4, Marquez himself had Pacquiao, Mayweather had Castillo, and to a certain extent you can say Maidana 1 as well, Leonard had the controversial Draw vs Hearns. These fights are needed in an ATG's resume for various reasons, one is to show what that ATG will do when pushed in a fight, two is to show how he will come back in a rematch, last but not least is to show him that he has an equal out there albeit in a higher weight class like Mayweather met his match at 135, and Pac moved up countless weight classes before he met his 50-50 match JMM

In other words, this is the best thing that could've happened to Ward. Instead wiping out Kovalev on the scorecards and have fans and media try to discredit Kovalev as a bad opponent who was matched well, now people see not only Kovalev is in fact the real deal and an elite fighter, but now to some people they see Ward as being down a notch like Pac and May after they fougbht JMM and Castillo respectively. Ward needed this fight and he needed it to end up like it did for his career's sake. Being Superman and beating everyone 12-0 gets the fans and media bored of you

[sunny31]

Pacquiao had Marquez 1, 3 and 4, Marquez himself had Pacquiao, Mayweather had Castillo, and to a certain extent you can say Maidana 1 as well, Leonard had the controversial Draw vs Hearns. These fights are needed in an ATG's resume for various reasons, one is to show what that ATG will do when pushed in a fight, two is to show how he will come back in a rematch, last but not least is to show him that he has an equal out there albeit in a higher weight class like Mayweather met his match at 135, and Pac moved up countless weight classes before he met his 50-50 match JMM

In other words, this is the best thing that could've happened to Ward. Instead wiping out Kovalev on the scorecards and have fans and media try to discredit Kovalev as a bad opponent who was matched well, now people see not only Kovalev is in fact the real deal and an elite fighter, but now to some people they see Ward as being down a notch like Pac and May after they fougbht JMM and Castillo respectively. Ward needed this fight and he needed it to end up like it did for his career's sake. Being Superman and beating everyone 12-0 gets the fans and media bored of you

I see where you coming from - I think Ward has slipped though, and that was the main reason this fight was so competitive, which makes it different to those examples that you gave. But people will definitely see him as more human and beatable now.