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

[Boxing Goat]

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.

I agree, but the fight wasn't stopped based on that either. That's the difference. Ward also hit behind the head and initiated a sh@t load of clinches too. When Wladimir does that he gets reamed but when Ward does it, it's boxing mastery

[Robbie Barrett]

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!

He forgot here too.

[The Big Dunn]

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!

weeks established the legal area and violated his own rule. IMO he made the mistake in round 2, realized it, and corrected himself and didn't make the same mistake again.

Doesn't he deserve credit for correcting a mistake?

[Robbie Barrett]

I agree, but the fight wasn't stopped based on that either. That's the difference. Ward also hit behind the head and initiated a sh@t load of clinches too. When Wladimir does that he gets reamed but when Ward does it, it's boxing mastery

Kovalev did a lot more rabbit punching than Ward and also headlocks.

[BoxingTech718]

I actually had Kovalev winning going into the final round.

Andre Ward's right hand over the top of Kovalevs jab combined with the body punches finished The fight.

It is also clear to me and others that Kovalev quit.
I think he thought he could get a DQ win.
He was fading and wanted no more.

I only blame Weeks for stopping the bombardment before Kovalev got beaten senseless.
Ward's trainer needs to teach him to be more vicious. To much stopping when he had him hurt.

[ray moe]

When you fake lowblows in order not to be hitten harder. When you give your back in order to avoid more punishment. That's not very brave, man, that's not very alpha. Everybody looks alpha when he's the one hitting, you know what a man is once things become tough, and kowardlev is nothing than beta, if you push me, omega. The girls in my gym dont give their back when they are being punished, they are braver than this piece of coward. Sergey "this is my back" Kowardlev.

Come on big man, come on sergey, call stevenson the next one if you have those guts we all know you havent.

[ADGZ]

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.

When you fake lowblows in order not to be hitten harder. When you give your back in order to avoid more punishment. That's not very brave, man, that's not very alpha. Everybody looks alpha when he's the one hitting, you know what a man is once things become tough, and kowardlev is nothing than beta, if you push me, omega. The girls in my gym dont give their back when they are being punished, they are braver than this piece of coward. Sergey "this is my back" Kowardlev.

Come on big man, come on sergey, call stevenson the next one if you have those guts we all know you havent.

With comments like these and many more across boxing message forums I'm starting to realize this is a RACE issue. Boxing has always been a nationalistic sport so I get it but the Ward Fans (African Americans) are really salty over Kovalev perceived racist comments and they banding together to not give any benefit of the doubt to Kovalev.

It was a bad stoppage and if it would have been reffed correctly Kovalev would have survived round with at a very high probabilty rate. Then the final 4 rounds would have been VERY INTERESTING!
And that is what WE the fans were robbed of!

[ray moe]

With comments like these and many more across boxing message forums I'm starting to realize this is a RACE issue. Boxing has always been a nationalistic sport so I get it but the Ward Fans (African Americans) are really salty over Kovalev perceived racist comments and they banding together to not give any benefit of the doubt to Kovalev.

It was a bad stoppage and if it would have been reffed correctly Kovalev would have survived round with at a very high probabilty rate. Then the final 4 rounds would have been VERY INTERESTING!
And that is what WE the fans were robbed of!

Sorry to break your agenda dude, but I'm not from USA, you can tell that only reading my sometimes broken english.

Plus, I'm no ward fan, I'd love to see him koed on the canvas, I hate his style.

Sorry to say that I'm only a guy who hates those guys who fake in the middle of a fight in order to misslead the referee.

I hate those who disrespect every opponent going full alpha (when they win) and then, when things become tough, suddenly start to act full beta, like a crying little baby girl, turning his back, faking and later on making excuses.

I hate those that thank god because the referee stopped the fight, and later on say that they got robbed. Those guys are the worst of the worst.

I have more respect for the discoordinated guys in my gym that everyday try-hard, even if they get a beating every now and then. I admire them. Kovalev? sorry, Kowardlev? I hate guys like him. They are nothing but half a man.

"I'll kill you! I'll end your career, I promise" ("if you dont mind. Please dont hurt me, this is my back, please, please, tony, look at my face, stop the fight.")


Look at this:



Now look at my signature. What a difference!!! isnt it? this half man is nothing than a full piece of..... A coward playing the brave when he can, and faking, giving his back, begging for a stoppage and crying when the **** hits the fan. Half-a-man.

[champion4ever]

With comments like these and many more across boxing message forums I'm starting to realize this is a RACE issue. Boxing has always been a nationalistic sport so I get it but the Ward Fans (African Americans) are really salty over Kovalev perceived racist comments and they banding together to not give any benefit of the doubt to Kovalev.

It was a bad stoppage and if it would have been reffed correctly Kovalev would have survived round with at a very high probabilty rate. Then the final 4 rounds would have been VERY INTERESTING!
And that is what WE the fans were robbed of!

I take it that you got more sense than any poster on this forum so why don't you use your intelligence sir? You've posted one the most asinine comments I've ever heard on here in a long time.

Here's a memo for you. The fight wasn't stopped due to low blows. It was stopped due to Kovalev's reluctance or inability to punch back and defend himself against Ward's relentless onslaught to the head and body.

Let's not pretend that Ward never landed any clean punches to the body or head. So that last low blow can be damned. He was ready to go several seconds prior to that punch even landing, so stop using that as an excuse to cop out.

Had that been Andre Ward feigning low blow injuries like that, guys like you would have been jumping all over him and so would I. So let's not make this a black/white issue because it's not a black/white issue. Well at least white guys like Dan Rafael, Max Kellerman and Jim Lampley don't appear to think so.

It's a right/wrong issue and this case Sergey just so happens to be wrong.

[Bigg Rigg]

Borderline low shots can be viewed as legal or illegal, am I right?? Since it's borderline?? The last punch before the stoppage was definitely low!! And the stoppage was horrendous. Even if Weeks thought the punches were good. You don't stop the fight there.