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

[Boxing Goat]

I didn't like the stoppage but understood weeks when u count everything else kov did. fine we will leave it at that bro!

If he took points, that would have been fair. He had not even given a warning to Kovalev so I don't accept that response as valid. The stoppage was wrong. There's no dis*****g it.

[Smash]

Wow, so there can be no comebacks in boxing then!!!!! You get wobbled and lowblowed multiple times, with the last one being a real doozie and then its game over definitely!! No, thats your opinion only, kovalev would most likely been ok after the 5 mins he SHOULD have got after the fouls then the round sitdown and would have done ok in the last few rounds. I think ward would have still won the fight but to say otherwise is just wishing thinking on some peoples part or just opinions, the fact is we will never know because of the truly awful ref. By the way even if kov dropped a 10 8 round he would have still be leading on one judges scorecard, so he had hope

[champion4ever]

Thank you Dan, you are a very honest man. I can see the controversy cooling off a bit now. Finally and thankfully, Kovalev's fans are coming to their senses.

I believe in due time, inevitably the boxing public; Especially the Ward haters and detractors will give him his full just due and proper credit for this victory.They just have to get over their initial shock first

They will run out of excuses and come to the realization that their guy Kov quit and just didn't want it anymore.

[Robbie Barrett]

If he took points, that would have been fair. He had not even given a warning to Kovalev so I don't accept that response as valid. The stoppage was wrong. There's no dis*****g it.

If Weeks didn't see a low blow and Kovalev is hunched over not defending himself, then it's understandable he stopped it.

[TonyGe]

Dan is just wrong on this one..They were low blows and Kovalev should have had 5 minutes to recover. Intentional or not they were still low. Not saying he would win the fight Ward was starting to take over but we will never know for sure.

[Deletrious]

Yeah that's pretty fair. I say it should have been a 10 count, if Kovalev doesn't stop sitting on the ropes then same result without the controversy. It was odd Kovalev was not complaining about the stoppage when it happened however.

Even Kovalev on Facebook today gave credit to Ward. Main Events wants to protect their product.

[Boxing Goat]

If Weeks didn't see a low blow and Kovalev is hunched over not defending himself, then it's understandable he stopped it.

There was a shot on HBO of the camera literally looking right over his left shoulder before he ran in that showed a clear low blow landing. He could not have missed it. I'm not saying he did it on purpose but it definitely was a mistake based on the actual rules. That's all I'm saying on the subject. Clearly I'm beating a dead horse now.

[Robbie Barrett]

There was a shot on HBO of the camera literally looking right over his left shoulder before he ran in that showed a clear low blow landing. He could not have missed it. I'm not saying he did it on purpose but it definitely was a mistake based on the actual rules. That's all I'm saying on the subject. Clearly I'm beating a dead horse now.

He should have clearly seen this low blow too.



He's in shot to the right. But he didn't. It's going to be difficult to see exactly where they land when the fighter is hunched over and your eyeline is above.

[Boxing Goat]

Dan is just wrong on this one..They were low blows and Kovalev should have had 5 minutes to recover. Intentional or not they were still low. Not saying he would win the fight Ward was starting to take over but we will never know for sure.

Perfect post. Nothing else to say really.

[daggum]

roc nation got to rafael! you know who thought they were low blows? tony weeks from roudn 2. he warned ward for them in roudn 2 but then when he threw even lower punches in rounds 7 and 8 he plain forgot what he just said!