Dan Rafael: Controversy nothing more than a manufactured excuse by Kovalev

[Cinci Champ]

I disagree with Dan on this one. The fight should not have been stopped. The shots that doubled Kovalev over were illegal. I happen to think that Ward would have stopped him anyways but that was a blown call by the ref.

well dan is right in pre fight he clearly said where legal spot was because for some reason kov decided to wear his shorts so weirdly high. low blow or not kov tried act like he got hit in the nuts which he didnt unless he has the highest and smallest nuts in the world. its an excuse period

[SlySlickSmooth]

I'm a Kov fan and I don't think the punches that stopped him were illegal. Weeks shows the beltline is legal on Kovalev plus his trunks are above his navel.

I've always disliked when fighters purposely wear their trunks that high.

Example:

If Cotto was punching at Martinez's belt line here, those are all legal shots. Trunks above the navel means they're hitting the lower abdomen, not their nuts.

[-Antonio-]

Everything was on the belt until the final blow, which was a low blow. I still say it's a bad stoppage. I'm just more upset we didn't get a definitive conclusion to the fight considering the first one should have gone to Kovalev to most people.

[Donnie Herrera]

Yep....for once i agree with the fat man.

Indeed...my sentiments exactly!✊🏾

[Madison Boxing]

who gives a **** what this stinking sweaty pig has to say.

[Boxing Goat]

how the hell were these illegal shots man??

Those are not the shots at the end of the fight and the ones you show there are even on the bottom of the beltline and are questionable. Imagine getting hit between your naval and d#ck. That's not legal.

[Curt Henning]

fat dan just stuck a spork in kovalevs fanboys

[Boxing Goat]

well dan is right in pre fight he clearly said where legal spot was because for some reason kov decided to wear his shorts so weirdly high. low blow or not kov tried act like he got hit in the nuts which he didnt unless he has the highest and smallest nuts in the world. its an excuse period

His beltline is no higher than any other average boxer and those shots at the end were below the white band at the top of his trunks. They were low, period.

Don't be upset that Kovalev hurt your feelings. I'm sure you've said far worse about white folk than he said about black folks, it's just that you weren't caught saying them.

[paulf]

I picked Ward in the first fight and thought Kov got ****in' robbed. Returned the points I won in a bet over it.

I was rooting for Kovalev Saturday, gave him most of the rounds, but knew he was done in round four. Dude transformed into Jean Pascal or some shit, maybe he just hasn't faced that kind of challenge, but he was completely gassed a third of the way through the fight.

Personally, those blows did not look low to me... borderline? Yeah, but not enough to stop fighting and act like you just got nutchecked. Same old shit from Kathy Duva... remember Khan-Judah? Kovalev was looking to buy time, he was exhausted and didn't know what to do. Taking a knee isn't exactly in his vocabulary.

I'm mainly disappointed with this event because I know we'll never hear the end of it (from either side). I want a third fight so I don't have to see posts about this **** a la Pacquiao-Marquez II five years from now.

[Boxing Goat]

I picked Ward in the first fight and thought Kov got ****in' robbed. Returned the points I won in a bet over it.

I was rooting for Kovalev Saturday, gave him most of the rounds, but knew he was done in round four. Dude transformed into Jean Pascal or some shit, maybe he just hasn't faced that kind of challenge, but he was completely gassed a third of the way through the fight.

Personally, those blows did not look low to me... borderline? Yeah, but not enough to stop fighting and act like you just got nutchecked. Same old shit from Kathy Duva... remember Khan-Judah? Kovalev was looking to buy time, he was exhausted and didn't know what to do. Taking a knee isn't exactly in his vocabulary.

I'm mainly disappointed with this event because I know we'll never hear the end of it (from either side). I want a third fight so I don't have to see posts about this **** a la Pacquiao-Marquez II five years from now.

In that last sequence the first shot landed directly on where the cup would be. That's plenty of reason to curl up. Even if you don't have a good size package. I've been hit in a cup before and it's not fun, much less from a powerful left hook from a pro boxing champ.