What No One Is Saying About Saturday

[koolkc107]

Hey, I will go on record as saying I thought the stoppage was premature.

I thought Weeks should have found a way to give an 8 count (ie claim the ropes held him up from a KD).

But, I am told this was not an option.

I also did not see any punch Ward threw that was an obvious foul.

A bit low, maybe the very last one before Weeks stepped in but that was as much Kova bent over as anything else.

So, here's the question...

What happens if Weeks just lets it go on?

Doesn't stop anything, just lets Ward keep butchering Kovalev?

Would y'all be in here today wondering why Weeks didn't step in sooner?

Can we agree that Tony Weeks probably saved the rest of Kova's career if not his life?

[Eff Pandas]

I think I said something similar the night of the fight & I don't disagree with you now.

Kovalev had mentally lost or given up already. He wasn't going to win. I'd even contend the flurry of punches only partially played into the stoppage along with Kov's body language, that said save me & had been saying save me for awhile in that last round. So if not for Kovalev's "I've lost" body language, as Weeks probably sees all the time, it might have actually went on. Or if Kov had wanted to continue & took a knee to collect himself the fight goes on. But I think Kovalev was kinda hoping for, maybe even unconsciously, that the fight would be stopped in a way where he could defend himself from the legitness of the L thus he didn't take measures to insure the ref wasn't put into a tough position to have to call the fight due to an unresponsive, looking like he had lost, while taking a flurry of punches fighter.

[koolkc107]

I think I said something similar the night of the fight & I don't disagree with you now.

Kovalev had mentally lost or given up already. He wasn't going to win. I'd even contend the flurry of punches only partially played into the stoppage along with Kov's body language, that said save me & had been saying save me for awhile in that last round. So if not for Kovalev's "I've lost" body language, as Weeks probably sees all the time, it might have actually went on. Or if Kov had wanted to continue & took a knee to collect himself the fight goes on. But I think Kovalev was kinda hoping for, maybe even unconsciously, that the fight would be stopped in a way where he could defend himself from the legitness of the L thus he didn't take measures to insure the ref wasn't put into a tough position to have to call the fight due to an unresponsive, looking like he had lost, while taking a flurry of punches fighter.

Hands down, not throwing anything at all...and folks think Weeks should have done what?

The punches weren't low, or at least it wasn't that egregious an offense to stop anything.

So, what happens if Weeks stays out the way and Ward keeps throwing?

I am a fan of Sergei.

I think he is still the 2nd best in the world and I have no doubt he is still too much for Adonis or the young turks like Beiterbiev and Bivol, at least right now he is.

So, I am glad Weeks stepped in.

Sugar Ray Leonard beating Hearns didn't mean Tommy wasn't still a badass...

[SUBZER0ED]

I think I said something similar the night of the fight & I don't disagree with you now.

Kovalev had mentally lost or given up already. He wasn't going to win. I'd even contend the flurry of punches only partially played into the stoppage along with Kov's body language, that said save me & had been saying save me for awhile in that last round. So if not for Kovalev's "I've lost" body language, as Weeks probably sees all the time, it might have actually went on. Or if Kov had wanted to continue & took a knee to collect himself the fight goes on. But I think Kovalev was kinda hoping for, maybe even unconsciously, that the fight would be stopped in a way where he could defend himself from the legitness of the L thus he didn't take measures to insure the ref wasn't put into a tough position to have to call the fight due to an unresponsive, looking like he had lost, while taking a flurry of punches fighter.

I think some of those punches were low, some were border. In many fights that I've seen, border-low punchers got warned to keep the punches up. I think Weeks warned Ward once. The shot thrown where Weeks stopped the fight was definitely low. Not nuts low, but pelvis low. You can almost see Kovalev's belly button just below the belt line and Ward clearly punched well below it.

[hugh grant]

Kov knew ward had REp for throwing low blows ie Barrera fight.
Kov expected ref to warn ward or give deduction or time for him to recover.
Kov didn't know ref had other ideas and was as shocked as us at stoppage

[Vlad_]

Hands down, not throwing anything at all...and folks think Weeks should have done what?

The punches weren't low, or at least it wasn't that egregious an offense to stop anything.

So, what happens if Weeks stays out the way and Ward keeps throwing?

I am a fan of Sergei.

I think he is still the 2nd best in the world and I have no doubt he is still too much for Adonis or the young turks like Beiterbiev and Bivol, at least right now he is.

So, I am glad Weeks stepped in.

Sugar Ray Leonard beating Hearns didn't mean Tommy wasn't still a badass...

Not throwing anything at all? He threw a punch right before the three final lowblows.

[Real King Kong]

My initial reaction watching it was weeks is getting ready to step in to warn ward for low blows or take a point. I did think kovalev was beaten, but he was also reacting to low blows...whether intentional or not. The shots throughout the fight were borderline and a lot of kovalev's reaction had to do with his inability to take punches in that region...but in his mind he was reacting to low blows. It wasn't the first time in the fight either. He may have been looking for weeks to take a point or warn ward, who knows. What he should have done is hit ward back low when it happened early on to force the ref's hand to take action.

[-PBP-]

Judgement call made by the referee to ensure the safety of the fighter. You can't question the stoppage.

What you can question is Kovalev's conditioning, mental weakness, lack of inside game, inability to defend against body shots, soft mid section, habits in between fights, inability to make adjustments in fight, tactics he used to try and trick the ref to get rest and discourage Ward from attacking the body and inability to solve the Ward puzzle.


Kovalev is 0-2 vs Andre Ward for those reasons and nothing else.

[Eff Pandas]

Judgement call made by the referee to ensure the safety of the fighter. You can't question the stoppage.

I think its fair to question stoppages. But I think part of that questioning has to accept + realize the job of the ref as well & not just consider the fighters in the equation.

Its a easy job instruction boxers got with trying to make the other guy unconscious within 36 minutes, but refs job instruction is to maintain control of those two fighters trying to knock the other guy unconscious while insuring he's not THAT injured from the other guy trying to knock him unconscious. Its a crazy f#cking task put upon refs if you think about it.

With that being the task of the ref, I think much like when a fight is close & it could legit be 7-5 this way or 7-5 the other way you just gotta accept that the decision can go either way without the losing fighter being robbed, I think you gotta accept a stoppage could come or a fight could go on a tad bit to long in the same sorta way. And you can't fault the ref for doing his job in the ring when it goes one way instead of the other within a certain margin of error not unlike with scorecards.

That said for me personally I'm definitely of the opinion that at this level of the game you give fighters maximum leeway to win or lose fights. I want as conclusive a win or loss as we can reasonably see without serious injury, of course. So I'd have preferred the fight to continue, BUT with how Kovalev had been reacting during the last round of the fight & in the lead up to the stoppage I just can't say that was a early stoppage or a bad stoppage cuz my enjoyment of the fight & desire to see a conclusive ending is superseded by the refs job to protect the fighters of which I believe he did to his own best judgment, with the evidence of Kovalev's condition at that moment.

[Redd Foxx]

Put it this way; if that was Ward on the receiving end of Krusher's punishment, few would have any problem. But, the perception is that Kovalev is made of iron and that Ward can't do that to him. Once you get past that (which I admittedly found difficult at first) it's really not so egregious.

For the rec, I'd liked it to have gone on so that Ward would have made an even greater statement.