Comments Thread For: Kovalev: If Ward Retires - Everyone Will Realize He is a Coward!

[Liondw]

As I mentioned in another comment, many rounds were so difficult to score and give to either fighter, but I will say that the rounds Kovalev won were probably a bit clearer than the rounds Ward won but it was so close. A 15 round fight or even if they came up with a 13 or 14 rounds maximum would help to decide these types of fights where 12 rounds are not quite enough, like the De La Hoya-Quartey fight for example, it could have done with another round.

[PunchyPotorff]

No matter what you think of the fight, there's no denying what Kovalev said. Ward thought he'd lost. So did his trainer. Before the 10th round, Virgil tells Ward in his corner that they need to win every remaining round. After the 10th round, Virgil tells Ward in a conciliatory tone, "We can't worry about what's come before. We need to put our faith in God now and start exchanging with this guy, start swinging." In other words, he thought Ward needed a knockout.

Then before round 12 even, Virgil told Ward, "I'm not afraid to say that Kovalev needs to stop you to win. I'm not afraid to say that. Go get it Andre. Don't go home without it. Put your faith in God. Let those hands fly." He was telling Ward to start swinging for the knockout because he thought they were too far behind

Meanwhile in Kovalev's corner, JDJ was telling Kovalev to "be careful." Kovalev's corner clearly thought they were too far ahead on points to be caught. Ward's corner clearly felt they were too far behind, and could only win by knockout. Just go watch the HBO replay you can hear the corners all fight. You'll hear Ward's trainer thought Ward lost, and so did Ward. From Virgil's own words.

This is what the Ward fans refuse to accept. Cipher's meme of Ward all busted up with gift tags and bows on the 3 belts... that tells it all in one pic. I think that fight was a wakeup call for Sergey. He won't be holding back in the rematch. And Ward knows that. Ward keeps talking a bigger paycheck, when he knows the purses have already been agreed upon before the first fight.

[Goyotronico]

Kovalev lost! Work on your stamina and make sure you do not gas out next time.

Still as you say, "gassed out" no stamina Kovalev was trowing and connecting more than ward, being the aggressor and the dominant boxer on the ring, Ward was gifted the decision, american judges, in american ring with american referee, he didn't do enough to win against the tittles holder, he didn't dominate in anything only running.

[g27region]

I totally agree with you on Main Events and the business move they made. I just think that in this case, when it's Ward trying to make a business move, Kovalev is a hypocrite to call Ward a coward! The people I am mad at most are detailed here:

July 27, 2015:

To be clear, this column isn’t a defense of Stevenson. Far from it. Since taking the WBC version of the 175-pound title from Chad Dawson in 2013, Stevenson has placed the belt in protective custody. A banner, Fighter of the Year ’13 was followed by an abysmal ’14, with a pair of title defenses against inferior opponents. His ducking of Kovalev became comical; an HBO fighter throughout all of ’13, Stevenson reneged on a handshake agreement to fight Kovalev in early ’14, signed with Al Haymon and fled to Showtime. He has long claimed he wanted the fight but his actions are those of a man who wants nothing to do with it.

Still, Stevenson isn’t blocking a light heavyweight unification fight today. Instead, that blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Kovalev, Main Events and HBO. Last March, the WBC, in a rare decision, ordered Stevenson to defend his title against Kovalev. A purse bid was ordered. The fight seemed closer than ever. Then, suddenly, Main Events backed out. Main Events CEO Kathy Duva cited Kovalev’s contract with HBO. If Main Events lost the purse bid, Kovalev would be forced to fight on another network, something, Duva said, that was contractually prohibited.

That HBO would want to broadcast Kovalev-Stevenson is understandable. The network has invested time and resources in building Kovalev into a mainstream star. Yet if the network wanted the fight badly enough it would have offered Duva the financial support to compete with a Haymon-fueled purse bid, a bid that likely would have exceeded $5 million. And if it didn’t, well, there are solid reasons why it would benefit HBO to get out of the way.

Consider: A Haymon-won purse bid would have led to Kovalev-Stevenson airing on CBS or NBC, two networks that have sold airtime to Haymon for his PBC series. Slap Kovalev-Stevenson on network TV in primetime and it would register a huge rating; conservatively, say, 2.5 million viewers, an audience that vastly exceeds any that Kovalev draws on HBO. The winner—and let’s be real, Kovalev would be a heavy favorite to pound Stevenson into submission—would emerge a far bigger star than he was coming in.

This is why HBO’s decision to block the purse bid is perplexing. And to be clear, it is HBO. Main Events is the face of this, but Duva is simply marching to HBO’s tune. With Haymon gobbling up most of the television real estate, license fees from HBO have become Main Events’s largest source of income. Think Duva fears a Haymon-won purse bid? Come on. A bigger bid puts more money in her pocket. What she fears is damaging the company’s relationship with HBO. Said Duva, “We were not going to destroy our relationship with HBO over a fight that might not even happen.”

Yet for HBO to stand between a Kovalev-Stevenson fight is remarkably shortsighted. Yes, it would lose a significant show. But it would not lose Kovalev. A mandatory fight does not include a rematch clause. Kovalev recently re-signed a long term deal with Main Events. He is fiercely loyal to his longtime manager, Egis Klimas. He isn’t joining forces with Haymon. A Stevenson fight is a one-off. Kovalev wins, and he returns to HBO a much bigger star.

Think about what HBO could do with that. The network is building towards an eventual Kovalev showdown with super middleweight kingpin Andre Ward. A rematch with Jean Pascal is appealing; the first fight drew 1.15 million viewers. Exposing Kovalev to a network audience in 2015 would result in a huge ratings boost for HBO in 2016, and beyond.

http://www.si.com/boxing/2015/07/27/...tevenson-fight

I don't see a hypocrisy from Kovalev, just because it was Duva talking, while Ward is trying to make a business move, the only business move that Kovalev is doing is getting screwed by Duva

Kathy Duva was probably backing down from that fight, that's possible. But as much as I don't like Kovalev for being stubborn and hot-headed, I can't call him a coward or ***** because it wouldn't make logical sense - he was willing to face Ward who was a way bigger threat to him than Stevenson and everybody thought he'd outbox Kovalev and give him no chances. Ward was the favorite in the books, and Stevenson wouldn't be favorite against Kovalev.

I don't like calling fighters "ducks" because there's a lot of **** going on behind the scenes. 90% of times when they get called ducks is always only business related. These people beating mother****ers for money, it takes a certain kind of mindset to compete in that sports and they have big egos, so it's not easy to scare them off like that, so when everybody was calling Canelo "duck", I was telling people to chill and they were sending me red k's. I understand that it was just a business move and if I was Oscar I would tell the same thing to Canelo who's probably aching to fight GGG, I'd say calm the **** down, I'm not sending my biggest cash cow to no slaughter. So I'm not calling him "duck" and I believe he wants to face GGG, but I can't deny that Canelo is protected by his team as much as Golovkin, who is another "protected" fighter who's carefully matched. Every fighter is protected to some degree. Haymon or Top Rank can afford to lose some fighter from their stable, and Main Events can't afford to lose their only one big name so it's possible that Duva wasn't enthusiastic about Stevenson fight from the start

[therealpugilist]

Interesting how fighters like Floyd, Ward, and Marquez are being called cowards by guys they already stepped into a ring with and beat🤔

Idiots be like "it was a WOBBERY DOE

ANDREA CO-ward afraid of kovalev"


People with common sense be like "Hold up..didnt he already fight that MFer"

idiots be like " yea ..bu bu bu"

common sense " end thread"

[mathed]

Kovalev calling you out coWARD. You arrogant punk, quit crying about how you got a gift and get your ass back in the ring for the rematch.

[mathed]

Interesting how fighters like Floyd, Ward, and Marquez are being called cowards by guys they already stepped into a ring with and beat��

Did those other guys receive a controversial decision where the majority of folks thought they should have lost the fight? Did those guys also have a mandatory rematch clause with all of the terms pre-arranged for the rematch? Did those other guys start talking about retiring instead of facing the opponent in that contractually obligated rematch?

[*TonyMontana*]

I hope he retires just to troll kovalev

[Kigali]

Get em Krusher!!! Correction though, we already know he's a coward. And a PED cheat. And a loser in his last fight.

Kovalev might be a cheat...but you wouldn't care.

[Kigali]

Kovalev calling you out coWARD. You arrogant punk, quit crying about how you got a gift and get your ass back in the ring for the rematch.

They just fought you puny scab.

You disgruntled Pacta,rds are the worst.