You have to "take" a champion's title

[Eff Pandas]

You can have cards btw 114-113 Ward and 116-111 Kovalev and the three US judges went full Ward 114-113.

Like I said, hometown decision, do you understand my point?

I got no clue what the Larry Merchant "hometown decision" bs angle is about. If you see how it can be 114-113 Ward then its simply a case of the fight being within the margin of error.

A hometown decision isn't a fight thats within the margin of error to me. Its a fight where a guy lost, but got the W & was in his hometown, state or country even. This was just a close fight. Its not as controversial as people wanna make it out to be. I think boxing fans are so used to & maybe in love with controversy at this point they try to make controversy up when there isn't any if we are being reasonable & logical about things.

[IronDanHamza]

Whatever you wish to believe..i know whats ..go ahead fight history my friend and the rule book. I think you may not want to agree with this b/c then it shows the winner. ive been around the game and you are wrong.

Please point me to where the rule book and scoring criteria states that effective aggression is the most important than any of the others and I will agree with you.

[travestyny]

I haven't talked too much about the Kovalev vs. Ward fight because even though I lost 2k on the fight, I'm pretty disappointed in both Kovalev and the judges.

I'm disappointed in Kovalev because he fought a way too cautious fight. There was no slugging [fighting] going on in that boxing match. Neither fighter made a statement in that matchup.
Instead, they both fought too cautious, and neither had to show much heart. I wish it would have been a fight, instead of a sparring match.

Secondly, you should have to take a champion's title, the title-holder should get the benefit of the doubt in an even round, and a champion should get the benefit of the doubt in an even fight.

I watched the fight multiple times, with and without sound.
I gave Ward rounds 1, 3, and 11. So I scored the fight 117-110 for Kovalev. To make matters worse, Ward got 5 million, and Kovalev- the champ with 3 titles - got 2 million for the fight.

I truly believe that the fight was signed way too far out, and each fighter had the chance to get into each other's heads.

There should be an unspoken, unwritten, rule-of-thumb in boxing that says you have to respect a champion's dignity of the title. You can't give an even round, or an even fight, to a challenger. They should have to earn it.

Boxing, the sport we love, loses fans with bad decisions such as this.
Another thing that hurts boxing is when you pay 2 warriors millions, and charge fight fans a days wages to watch it, and the warriors don't fight.

No doubt that the re-match will be a war, and probably will be taken out of the hands of the judges.
But I don't think either one of these guys has a place in the ring with Adonis Stevenson right now.

They have to re-store their dignity, and the dignity of boxing first.

I made a thread about this a few days ago. There is no such thing as having to take it from the champion. The champion is not given any special benefit other than retaining the title on a draw. Otherwise, the combatants go into the fight evenly.

Kevin Iole often comments on this:

[hugh grant]

Hometown boys are the toughest to beat hometown boys can literally lose 12 rounds yet get decision.
That's why ward gets little credit and most feel he didn't do enough for a genuine win. He got a hometown win.
Controversial decision as the wrong man won. But not quite a robbery.

[BillyBoxing]

I got no clue what the Larry Merchant "hometown decision" bs angle is about. If you see how it can be 114-113 Ward then its simply a case of the fight being within the margin of error.

A hometown decision isn't a fight thats within the margin of error to me. Its a fight where a guy lost, but got the W & was in his hometown, state or country even. This was just a close fight. Its not as controversial as people wanna make it out to be. I think boxing fans are so used to & maybe in love with controversy at this point they try to make controversy up when there isn't any if we are being reasonable & logical about things.

Hometown decision is not a fight were the result is only horrible or totally wrong, it can be a result where the hometown fighter is clearly favoured and getting all the swing/debatable rounds wich happened this week end with Ward and his fellow american judges.

[Eff Pandas]

Hometown decision is not a fight were the result is only horrible or totally wrong, it can be a result where the hometown fighter is clearly favoured and getting all the swing/debatable rounds wich happened this week end with Ward and his fellow american judges.

Yea I disagree with that, but fair enough if thats your definition of a hometown decision. To me a hometown decision is more or less just the reason behind a robbery & not a special type or genre of "bad decision".

[watchayouhead]

When judges score a fight, they give 10 points to the winner of the round, and 9 to the loser of the round - unless it was a knockdown, then the loser of the round gets 8 points.

In the event of an even round, it is a 10 point MUST system, meaning that you have to give one of the fighters a 10. In that event, an even round is a draw, and the rules say a champion wins in the event of a draw.

In a championship fight, I'm just not going to give the challenger the 10 in an even round.
There was even rounds in the Kov vs Ward fight, and I gave the even rounds to Kov the champion.

In an even round in a championship fight, I always give the 10 to the champ in respect for his title. The challenger is trying to take the title, and giving the challenger a gift 10 in an even round doesn't lend itself to a challenger taking a title.

[Robbie Barrett]

When judges score a fight, they give 10 points to the winner of the round, and 9 to the loser of the round - unless it was a knockdown, then the loser of the round gets 8 points.

In the event of an even round, it is a 10 point MUST system, meaning that you have to give one of the fighters a 10. In that event, an even round is a draw, and the rules say a champion wins in the event of a draw.

In a championship fight, I'm just not going to give the challenger the 10 in an even round.
There was even rounds in the Kov vs Ward fight, and I gave the even rounds to Kov the champion.

In an even round in a championship fight, I always give the 10 to the champ in respect for his title. The challenger is trying to take the title, and giving the challenger a gift 10 in an even round doesn't lend itself to a challenger taking a title.

So you give the champion a gift 10 instead how is that fair? Giving someone rounds just because they have a belt or two.

[watchayouhead]

In an even round, how can you justify giving the 10 to the challenger? If it is even the challenger didnt take anything, and the champ didnt lose anything.

I don't like the 10 point MUST system because you must give an even round to somebody. I would rather give each fighter a 10 in an even round. LET THE CLEAR 10-9 ROUNDS BE THE DECIDING FACTOR.

[Robbie Barrett]

In an even round, how can you justify giving the 10 to the challenger? If it is even the challenger didnt take anything, and the champ didnt lose anything.

I don't like the 10 point MUST system because you must give an even round to somebody. I would rather give each fighter a 10 in an even round. LET THE CLEAR 10-9 ROUNDS BE THE DECIDING FACTOR.

No round is truly even ever. Look harder at the rounds.