Comments Thread For: Fighting Words - Kovalev-Ward: The Fight is Over, The Fighting Isn't

[Redd Foxx]

Brother I read it.

Not trying to bash you but no one is reading your long rants. You were outright trashing Ward before the fight, so don't expect anyone here to think you have any credibility afterward. That's just the consequence of behavior. Next time, be cool, be reasonable before a fight happens and people will give some credence to what you say. If I remember right, you've been cool about other subjects.
I don't have time for people who were screaming "ROBBERY!!" before the fight even took place.

[Weltschmerz]

Only if you're very biased in favor of Ward can you end up having it 114-113 in favor of Ward. FACT.

[TheSnatcher]

We will dig in our heels, insult the opposition and shake our heads that others can’t see the obvious truth.

Totally agreed with this article and laughed some comments showing exactly same on that quote...lol

[aboutfkntime]

by David P. Greisman - The fight is over. The fighting is not. Nothing written in this column will change your conclusion, even if the fight itself was inconclusive. It was a fight that was so, so close. And yet those fighting over it are so, so far apart. There are actually three sides of this debate...
[Click Here To Read More]

excellent article

only the casuals and the fanboys are calling robbery

it was a close debatable decision, just like the writer said

[aboutfkntime]

David you just waxed poetic about the alleged subjectivity of this fight even though it came right after a fight where EVERYONE agrees the judges didn't get it "subjectively" wrong, they were BOUGHT OFF or otherwise corrupt in favor of the other Roc Nation fighter on the card.

So David, honestly, maybe you were told to write this to help cover for the judges, but writing an article about boxing judging in this fight without mentioning the evidence that judges on this night were clearly bought off makes you look like a shill.

Additionally, even Ward fans agree Kovalev won the 10th round, so how did all three judges give it to Ward? There is subjectivity, but then there is "if we give Kovalev one more round, he will win, so we have to give every round to Ward from now in, even ones he clearly loses like round 10."

How gullible do you think people are? Disagreeing is one thing, but clear evidence of corruption in favor of the same promotional company twice on the same night goes beyond any reasonable disagreement. Now you can say corruption wasn't quite as clear, at least not in as many rounds, in the Kovalev-Ward fight as it was in the Hooker-Perez fight, and that's fine, but you can't separate the two.

I mean, if you are trying to figure out who committed two serial robberies in real life where the robber leaves the same signature at each crime scene, and you find a suspect named Jonathan Schlooper whose fingerprints, hair, and car is at the first crime scene, but only his fingerprints are at the second crime scene, that doesn't mean you go "well you can't really say it was him the second robbery, because only his fingerprints were there, there wasn't nearly the overwhelming evidence as the first robbery." No, you connect the dots. The evidence from the first crime scene informs you about what happened at the second crime scene.

So David, I have been a huge fan of your work in the past, but I am very disappointed in this column, and I hope you write another one that actually touches on the high likelihood of corruption, not disagreement, but corruption, on this night. I want you to ask why Hooker got the draw against Perez after losing every round on everyone's scorecard? Why did one judge only have Kovalev up 4-2 after he dominated the first 6, but then give Ward every close round the second half of the fight? Why did all three judges give Ward round 10 when that was an obvious Kovalev round? You really think that's just down to disagreement?

See you looked at it from a macro level. You looked at it in hindsight, how you could find 7 rounds for Ward even if you gave Kovalev round 10. But that's not what happened on the night. The way the judges had it, when round 10 came around, if they had given it to Kovalev, he would have won, period. So they didn't have the benefit of moving around various rounds. If they wanted Ward to win, they had to give him round 10. And they did! Even though Kovalev won it clear. So why don't you focus more on that? THAT screams corruption to me. And I hope you actually write about that because right now it feels like you are covering for the judges big time.

I'm sorry, but do boxing judges really deserve the benefit of the doubt 60 minutes after Hooker-Perez ended? Come on.

you really do sound like a dumb casual fan at times

which makes your username an oxymoron

that was just dumb

I doubt that anyone actually read past the bold

it was a close debatable decision

[aboutfkntime]

Boxing Logic.....

read the entire article again, slowly

[Nomadic]

Boxing Logic.....

read the entire article again, slowly

Probably have to read it in slow motion, and backwards to fully understand it.

[BrometheusBob.]

Great read and perfectly summarizes how I feel.

There's no robbery, just a bunch of close rounds. It's easier to give the fight to Kovalev due to the number of the close rounds and his dominance in the beginning of the fight. Ward got almost all of the swing rounds in his favor and thus won. There are many possibly reasons why the judges decided to give Ward those close rounds.

Some people will say it's because they were all Americans. It's possible.
Others will point to the crowd's reaction, which was almost entirely pro-Ward and anti-Kov.
A few will say it's because Ward deserved them.

I have a personal theory of why Kovalev got virtually shut out in 2nd half of the fight. It has everything to do with expectations. We all know that Ward is the technician and Kovalev is the puncher. When Kovalev performed like Kovalev, the judges swung in his favor. As soon as he played Ward's game, no matter how successful he was, judges assumed that Ward won those rounds because that's what they expected. After all, how could Kovalev hope to match Ward on the inside and throwing counters?


You can write 1000 articles arguing for one thing or another. Fact is it was a fight decided by 1 point. I scored the fight a draw, and that's what it was. The rematch will tell us everything we need to know. Either Ward makes the adjustments to make it look easy, or Kovalev will show that he's no longer playing. Rematch will be 5 times better than the original!

A well-written article that should help many people respect a diverse number of opinions. No doubt we'll get the obligatory "Kovalev Won!!" and "I don't care what anyone says, I cannot yadda, yadda" noise.
But, folks, please read it. A little knowledge isn't going to hurt.
(and if it makes you feel better, the author thinks Kovalev won)

Good posts.

At the end of the day, not everyone will agree about the scores. I won't even say it's incorrect per se to have scored 114-113 or 115-112 for Kovalev, as was the case for the majority of people who scored it in his favor. The nature of scoring close rounds means there will be people who run the full gamut of possible scoring of those rounds and who is to say which of those is correct.

Both fighters demonstrated excellence and a rematch will give both fighters an opportunity to make a more definitive statement.

[bluemax]

One of two reasons why Ward won this fight. The judges were corrupt or just plain incompetent. This is exactly why boxing is losing ground to other sports! i watched this fight a few times and it only reinforced my belief that something WRONG happened Saturday night. Ward held all night long and the poor referee for some reason didn't see it. Ward now can be tv's champion but the best fighter Saturday night was Kovalev

[Dr Rumack]

I have a personal theory of why Kovalev got virtually shut out in 2nd half of the fight. It has everything to do with expectations. We all know that Ward is the technician and Kovalev is the puncher. When Kovalev performed like Kovalev, the judges swung in his favor. As soon as he played Ward's game, no matter how successful he was, judges assumed that Ward won those rounds because that's what they expected.

Exactly right. Narrative bias. Kovalev gets no credit for slipping and blocking Ward's shots.