Can both sides be honest with themselves here?

[Deevel916]

This fight was just about dead even going into the 8th. Ward had a very strong 8th round and hurt Kov but didnt hurt him to the extent where the fight should have been waved off. Especially given the shots that landed just prior to the stoppage.

I've been watching boxing since 1986 and this is the first time I've ever seen a fight stopped on low blows/body punches where the fighter didnt go down.

We cant just assume that Ward would have stopped him anyway as I see many posters doing. These are 2 champs in a very close fight. Let it play out.

[SplitSecond]

I have to agree with the op. But honestly who can say, we have seen guys turn fights around in worse condition than kovalev was in, he was also approaching the end of the round, and has the power to turn things around. The night was ruined, it's not an excuse like some on here seem to think to state facts, ward could also do to watch his illegal activity if him and his fans dont want these things brought up.

[Chrismart]

It was a tense fight, a even one also like the first.

I can't quite recall all the shots that are being questioned as to if they were low or ok. I think there was one at the end of the 7th which looked questionable.
The right, left combo looked good shots, on the belt line.
I thought at least 2 of the 3 in that final flurry looked low. Especially the last one..i was surprised to see the ref waving it off as i thought he would be stepping in to give Kovalev 5 minutes after that last one. I don't think Weeks covered himself in glory there.

I'm surprised Kovalev didn't go low himself in the 8th. If he felt Ward was repeatedly going low, i'm surprised he didn't fight fire with fire.