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Okay, some people were thinking I'm trolling around here. Well, I've had some fun with it (mostly, it's related to the fact that I have higher set of standarts for fighters from Russia/ex-USSR countries and never satisfied with their performances) but I always get back to rational thinking so I guess I have to explain my real thoughts on Kovalev/Ward fight with no BS.
I think it was a draw
Honestly, I don't like Kovalev as a person. Too stubborn and hot headed and he might come off as extremely ignorant at some moments. For me, he's far from being likeable. On the other hand, he's from Russia too and it feels like I'm supposed to root for him, right? See, but even considering the fact that I don't like him, there's something about him that I can't ignore - he's not a coward or *****. A lot of people seems to forget that he took this fight for almost no money (for the fight of this magnitude), faced a huge risk to take a loss when he could marinate this fight for few years, always fights on foreign soil in front of hostile crowd who get loud after the slight success of his opponents. A lot of people seems to forget that he came off poverty and that he was fighting for free for half of his career and never tasted the real money or good reward for his wins (and from that point, I think he never will). People just don't give him the credit for all these things or they forget about all of that. But I'm aware of this, even if I don't like him. I believe in karma, and I was thinking that sooner or later the karma for his temper will get back to him, in the form of some loss where he'd get exposed. For me, putting him on the p4p pedestal was not even in consideration because he seemed pretty vulnerable at some points of his career - like the first fight with Pascal and especially, in Chilemba fight. But his personality, the way he acts or looks - I don't like all of that and I can see why he wouldn't be likeable or appealing to American audience. In my opinion, there's only 2 Russian/ex-USSR fighters with the potential to be marketable - it's Khabib Nurmagomedov in UFC and, to a way lesser extent, Vasyl Lomachenko. The other fighters just don't know how to sell themselves because they're newcomers to the world of capitalism and they look like a bunch of stoic mother****ers with almost no charisma (like Beterbiev) who let the fights do the talking or there's a huge language barrier that doesn't allow them to express their thoughts completely or it makes them seem like dorks or bo**** (like Golovkin). Kovalev falls into that category of Russian fighters who you can't sell
I don't have a certain opinion on Ward's personality but he was like a boxing god to me. The kind of fighter who calculate all possible risks, so when he takes the fight you're sure that he'll get the W. For me, he was better than Mayweather and I know that I might get red K for that, but I say that because unlike Mayweather, I've never seen Ward troubled in any of his fights before Kovalev (besides that Darnell Boone knockdown). He's the kind of fighter who knows how to look victorious in the ring and who tries to take ANY episode of the fight. Plus he's coming from that rare breed of fighters (like Mayweather or Lomachenko or Khabib in UFC) who's adjusted to the sport since the early childhood and lives his whole life like it's a training regime, in permanent preparation for the fight. I always give advantage to the fighters with the background like that. Not to mention that despite that he had some controversial fight when he was in amateurs, the one that he certainly didn't win, he never tasted a legitimate loss. Ward has that winner mentality and you can't play mind games with him
By the way, both Kovalev and Ward have that champion's mentality and they don't like to even give their oppnents a slight opportunity to dictate the fight. In my opinion, this is exactly what made their fight so close, not their skills. After the end of this fight, they're both were convinced that they were controlling each other if you check their interviews. Ward said Kovalev was doing exactly what he expected him to do and Kovalev said that he never lost his control in this fight. So that mentality made the fight to be close. On the other hand, people was expecting it to be a 50/50 fight and that's exactly what it turned out to be (so yeah, it's supposed to be a draw since both of the fighters never had the noticeable advantage)
I really don't like watching Ward's fight. There's only one Ward's fight that I can rewatch - it's fight with Chad Dawson and there's only one fight of Kovalev that I can watch again - it's rematch with Pascal. They're both not the most entertaining fighters around for me and I understand it when people say stuff like "Ward is too boring" and that watching Ward's fights is like a reading long ass instructional book and watching Kovalev's fights is like reading colourful entertaining comics. But anyway, you can't ignore the fact that Ward always doing whatever it takes to win. It doesn't matter if it's entertaining or not, but he always win. In other words, he was the perfect candidate for #1 p4p spot considering that he dominated all his opponents in the pro career to the point where you barely can find any episode of any Ward's fight where his opponents looked better than him
I felt like Ward is just unstoppable in the ring. For me, Kovalev had no chance, not even a chance for lucky punch because he's never been a 1 punch KO artist, he need to land the clean combination in order to hurt his opponent and that's an incredibly difficult task when you deal with Ward
But I couldn't believe myself, this was a first time I've seen Ward being so vulnerable in the fight, and being challenged to the point where his win is controversial and not undeniable like previous ones. That never happened before, we talk about the fighter who was winning every episode of all his fights. I thought Kovalev is a good boxer, but too basic and simple for a versatile fighter like Ward so I wasn't expecting this fight to be even competetive. I couldn't believe myself, but it was so ****ing close. In the mid-rounds I've realized that both of these fighters won't get the first spot in my personal p4p list because of the fact that in my opinion, the p4p king supposed to dominate all his competition. He isn't supposed to be engaged in competitive close fights, he should be few levels above than the rest of the boxing world. I thought Ward is that kind of fighter but I was wrong. It's still Roman Chocolatito and Ward with Kovalev shares 2# and 3# spots in whatever order.
Draw would be the most logical and rational decision due to the fact that both sides wouldn't agree with defeat, and both Kovalev and Ward would have every right to disagree if the judges were favoring the opposite side
It's hard to judge the fight based on the fact that both fighters are great at completely different aspects of the game. Kovalev landed more punches and his offensive was way more effective than all attempts of previous Ward's opponent. You can't call the aggression to be "ineffective" when the fighter lands more punches than his rival. Even if he's not as accurate as the other fighter, he still lands more. But it feels like the fighters needs to have mother****ers getting taken out on a stretcher nowadays, to have the fans thinking that their offensive was effective. On the other hand, Ward was dictating the pace of the fight and he was controlling the distance better. By the way, this is the best thing about American school of boxing - American boxers are great at controlling the distance - Ward, Mayweather or Crawford are good examples of that. This is their biggest advantage. Lomachenko is probably only one European boxer who control the distance like he bleeds red, white and blue
So both of the fighters were great in their own way, but not great enough to dominate the fight and get an undeniable win. A draw would be the most logical result that would have both sides more satisfied with the decision
But anyway, Kovalev was supposed to understand that he had to do more than that. When you fight on a foreign soil, you can't afford to have a CLOSE fight, it's a taboo. You're supposed to be two times better. Plus he wasn't suposed to try to wrestle with Ward which got him more tired at the end of the fight and Kovalev has problems with stamina
They're not on the 1 spot of my p4p list ONLY because of the fight was close, they share #2 and #3 spots. I'm still waiting for a boxer who will take over the sport like a ****ing Napoleon.
Now I can say that Andre Ward is far from Mayweather and Kovalev is not a Mike Tyson either. You can say that Mayweather got some competitive performances too, yeah, but Andre Ward and Kovalev are 32 and 33, they're probably past their prime already. Anyway, a good fight but I wouldn't be interested in watching rematch because I've already seen that matchup of styles. Even though I was serious when I've said that Kovalev career might be dead and finished from this point if he won't get a rematch.
When I've heard that there's a rematch clause, I've suspected that the fight will be controversial, and it will turn into a big ****ing "Drama show" with three fights. Why not to use that opportunity, when you can sell the same fight THREE times instead of only one? See, if it wasn't controversial and if Ward was dominating Kovalev or Kovalev KO'd Ward early, you wouldn't be excited about the rematch. But since the fight was close, you're all hyped up and want to see it again. I can't exclude the possibility that behind the scenes, Kovalev and Ward probably got told to make the fight as close as possible. Would you turn down the offer to earn three times more money than you were supposed to get from this fight? I wouldn't.
So we have a fight with no winners or losers
I'd appreciate all green K's for a message this long
I think it was a draw
Honestly, I don't like Kovalev as a person. Too stubborn and hot headed and he might come off as extremely ignorant at some moments. For me, he's far from being likeable. On the other hand, he's from Russia too and it feels like I'm supposed to root for him, right? See, but even considering the fact that I don't like him, there's something about him that I can't ignore - he's not a coward or *****. A lot of people seems to forget that he took this fight for almost no money (for the fight of this magnitude), faced a huge risk to take a loss when he could marinate this fight for few years, always fights on foreign soil in front of hostile crowd who get loud after the slight success of his opponents. A lot of people seems to forget that he came off poverty and that he was fighting for free for half of his career and never tasted the real money or good reward for his wins (and from that point, I think he never will). People just don't give him the credit for all these things or they forget about all of that. But I'm aware of this, even if I don't like him. I believe in karma, and I was thinking that sooner or later the karma for his temper will get back to him, in the form of some loss where he'd get exposed. For me, putting him on the p4p pedestal was not even in consideration because he seemed pretty vulnerable at some points of his career - like the first fight with Pascal and especially, in Chilemba fight. But his personality, the way he acts or looks - I don't like all of that and I can see why he wouldn't be likeable or appealing to American audience. In my opinion, there's only 2 Russian/ex-USSR fighters with the potential to be marketable - it's Khabib Nurmagomedov in UFC and, to a way lesser extent, Vasyl Lomachenko. The other fighters just don't know how to sell themselves because they're newcomers to the world of capitalism and they look like a bunch of stoic mother****ers with almost no charisma (like Beterbiev) who let the fights do the talking or there's a huge language barrier that doesn't allow them to express their thoughts completely or it makes them seem like dorks or bo**** (like Golovkin). Kovalev falls into that category of Russian fighters who you can't sell
I don't have a certain opinion on Ward's personality but he was like a boxing god to me. The kind of fighter who calculate all possible risks, so when he takes the fight you're sure that he'll get the W. For me, he was better than Mayweather and I know that I might get red K for that, but I say that because unlike Mayweather, I've never seen Ward troubled in any of his fights before Kovalev (besides that Darnell Boone knockdown). He's the kind of fighter who knows how to look victorious in the ring and who tries to take ANY episode of the fight. Plus he's coming from that rare breed of fighters (like Mayweather or Lomachenko or Khabib in UFC) who's adjusted to the sport since the early childhood and lives his whole life like it's a training regime, in permanent preparation for the fight. I always give advantage to the fighters with the background like that. Not to mention that despite that he had some controversial fight when he was in amateurs, the one that he certainly didn't win, he never tasted a legitimate loss. Ward has that winner mentality and you can't play mind games with him
By the way, both Kovalev and Ward have that champion's mentality and they don't like to even give their oppnents a slight opportunity to dictate the fight. In my opinion, this is exactly what made their fight so close, not their skills. After the end of this fight, they're both were convinced that they were controlling each other if you check their interviews. Ward said Kovalev was doing exactly what he expected him to do and Kovalev said that he never lost his control in this fight. So that mentality made the fight to be close. On the other hand, people was expecting it to be a 50/50 fight and that's exactly what it turned out to be (so yeah, it's supposed to be a draw since both of the fighters never had the noticeable advantage)
I really don't like watching Ward's fight. There's only one Ward's fight that I can rewatch - it's fight with Chad Dawson and there's only one fight of Kovalev that I can watch again - it's rematch with Pascal. They're both not the most entertaining fighters around for me and I understand it when people say stuff like "Ward is too boring" and that watching Ward's fights is like a reading long ass instructional book and watching Kovalev's fights is like reading colourful entertaining comics. But anyway, you can't ignore the fact that Ward always doing whatever it takes to win. It doesn't matter if it's entertaining or not, but he always win. In other words, he was the perfect candidate for #1 p4p spot considering that he dominated all his opponents in the pro career to the point where you barely can find any episode of any Ward's fight where his opponents looked better than him
I felt like Ward is just unstoppable in the ring. For me, Kovalev had no chance, not even a chance for lucky punch because he's never been a 1 punch KO artist, he need to land the clean combination in order to hurt his opponent and that's an incredibly difficult task when you deal with Ward
But I couldn't believe myself, this was a first time I've seen Ward being so vulnerable in the fight, and being challenged to the point where his win is controversial and not undeniable like previous ones. That never happened before, we talk about the fighter who was winning every episode of all his fights. I thought Kovalev is a good boxer, but too basic and simple for a versatile fighter like Ward so I wasn't expecting this fight to be even competetive. I couldn't believe myself, but it was so ****ing close. In the mid-rounds I've realized that both of these fighters won't get the first spot in my personal p4p list because of the fact that in my opinion, the p4p king supposed to dominate all his competition. He isn't supposed to be engaged in competitive close fights, he should be few levels above than the rest of the boxing world. I thought Ward is that kind of fighter but I was wrong. It's still Roman Chocolatito and Ward with Kovalev shares 2# and 3# spots in whatever order.
Draw would be the most logical and rational decision due to the fact that both sides wouldn't agree with defeat, and both Kovalev and Ward would have every right to disagree if the judges were favoring the opposite side
It's hard to judge the fight based on the fact that both fighters are great at completely different aspects of the game. Kovalev landed more punches and his offensive was way more effective than all attempts of previous Ward's opponent. You can't call the aggression to be "ineffective" when the fighter lands more punches than his rival. Even if he's not as accurate as the other fighter, he still lands more. But it feels like the fighters needs to have mother****ers getting taken out on a stretcher nowadays, to have the fans thinking that their offensive was effective. On the other hand, Ward was dictating the pace of the fight and he was controlling the distance better. By the way, this is the best thing about American school of boxing - American boxers are great at controlling the distance - Ward, Mayweather or Crawford are good examples of that. This is their biggest advantage. Lomachenko is probably only one European boxer who control the distance like he bleeds red, white and blue
So both of the fighters were great in their own way, but not great enough to dominate the fight and get an undeniable win. A draw would be the most logical result that would have both sides more satisfied with the decision
But anyway, Kovalev was supposed to understand that he had to do more than that. When you fight on a foreign soil, you can't afford to have a CLOSE fight, it's a taboo. You're supposed to be two times better. Plus he wasn't suposed to try to wrestle with Ward which got him more tired at the end of the fight and Kovalev has problems with stamina
They're not on the 1 spot of my p4p list ONLY because of the fight was close, they share #2 and #3 spots. I'm still waiting for a boxer who will take over the sport like a ****ing Napoleon.
Now I can say that Andre Ward is far from Mayweather and Kovalev is not a Mike Tyson either. You can say that Mayweather got some competitive performances too, yeah, but Andre Ward and Kovalev are 32 and 33, they're probably past their prime already. Anyway, a good fight but I wouldn't be interested in watching rematch because I've already seen that matchup of styles. Even though I was serious when I've said that Kovalev career might be dead and finished from this point if he won't get a rematch.
When I've heard that there's a rematch clause, I've suspected that the fight will be controversial, and it will turn into a big ****ing "Drama show" with three fights. Why not to use that opportunity, when you can sell the same fight THREE times instead of only one? See, if it wasn't controversial and if Ward was dominating Kovalev or Kovalev KO'd Ward early, you wouldn't be excited about the rematch. But since the fight was close, you're all hyped up and want to see it again. I can't exclude the possibility that behind the scenes, Kovalev and Ward probably got told to make the fight as close as possible. Would you turn down the offer to earn three times more money than you were supposed to get from this fight? I wouldn't.
So we have a fight with no winners or losers
I'd appreciate all green K's for a message this long
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