Kovalev held 54 times..where is the uproar?

[Ruthless One]

Ward always initiated the holding by ducking low and tackling Kovalev at the waistline level. Kovalev responded by either headlocking Ward or resting his forearm on the back of Ward's neck. There was one time when Kovalev even raised his arms to show the ref he wasn't the one initiating the holding/headlocking, yet Ward kept grabbing on.

[sicko]

i thought he did a good job at first by not penalizing either guy for holding and letting them and the judges decide the fight but in hindsight maybe if he penalized ward or kovalev for holding maybe we have a lot less holding....

but then people will complain that the ref interjected...

ward is thought of as some great inside fighter but he really is a cheap inside fighter.

there's a way to fight inside without excessively clinching and holding the way ward does it....

there's a way to be defensive without using excessive spoiling tactics that just drain any entertainment value from the fight.

Clinching will ALWAYS be apart of the sport, ALWAYS! Where you get penalize is when Ref calls you to release and you don't let go OR if you don't keep 1 arm free and not working on the inside and you just GRAB AND HOLD and look at the ref to break. Ward works on the inside to the body especially which is what many greats like Duran did. People want inside fighting removed because their favorite fighter can't do it but it is never going to go away and no refs are not going to penalize for it if the guy on the inside is freeing his hands and working on the inside

Kovalev did WTF he had to do to deal with Ward ruggedness on the inside it didn't ruin the fight for me, was still a good fight because I thought Byrd did great dealing with it

[j0zef]

Yes, an outside fighter like Kovalev purposely held Ward, a known clincher and inside fighter, to reduce his chances of winning. I mean, Kov obviously didn't want to win, that's why he clinched.

I would tell you to open your eyes and realize that Ward initiates every single of those, but you probably have Ward's dried manjuices on your eyelids.

[stefjonno1]

It's hard to really moan about Kovalevs holding and headlocks as Andre's inside game can be pretty brutal at times. In saying that, that's where I thought he would clearly have the edge. I still think he did slightly, but think it would have been way wider score if not for the headlocks, but fair play to Kovalev for his tactics.

[Jc8804]

Where are the same fans who said Floyd held to much and that Ward was the one who would be holding??

Ward low blowed blatantly 6 times in 3 different rounds. He elbowed 3 times in 2 different rounds. Rabbit punch count was at 5

[RussB23]

Exactly. Ward came in like a billy goat and initiated the clinches. Kovalev was wise to Ward's tactics and put him in a head lock.

You could say the same about povetkin vs wlad.

[gmc_rfc_06]

Much like Porter-Brook, the clinching was the usual guys fault.

Kovalev and Brook rarely clinch, yet there was a lot of clinching in those two fights. Why? That would be because Ward and Porter are clinch machines in virtually every fight who lead with their head and do a lot of holding and hitting.

[satiev1]

You must be blind. Ward came in hugging and initiated the clinch every time.

[satiev1]

Ward initiated virtually every one by rushing in with his head and trying to hold and hit. Kovalev merely neutralised him

This ward initiates the clinch and he shows the clip after kovalev try to get out of the clinch. This is what you call a typical biased fan boy.

[Larry the boss]

i wonder why the video is just screen grabs of kov holding...could it be that they don't want to show when ward ran into kovalev and started holding first? just edit that part out its not important!

larry will pretend he's unbiased by only showing screen grabs and not the whole sequence. because having less information is always a good thing right? we know he doesn't like having all the info. when you how a slow-mo vid of every punch in floyd-pac THAT'S BIASED! when you cut a frame of the wrd-kovalev fight to make it look like kovalev is the one holding when he ws doing it in response to being held NOT BIASED!

did you ask this question when they made the Mayweather-Pacquiao holding video?? with much less holding?