do illegal shots have to be taken into context?

[Tony Trick-Pony]

I'm actually in favor of a Ball-Busters Special Event, headlined by Ward-Golota. You want in the heavyweight division? Do it the right way- the only way by taking that Polish fist to the gonads. Be a ****in man. The co-feature will be Salido-Mares in a KO Codds special- no cups and no excuses. Bombs will be wielded and balls will be crushed in this one-time extravaganza. Also, ball busting heavily encouraged in the audience. Whatever walks in with a pair, walks out with crushed raisins.

[hhs661]

Ward slips kovas jab and puts his head under kovas armpit...thats why headlocks occur

And count the amount of rabbit punches in second fight and i bet they landed similar amount if not ward landing more

So Ward forced Kov to clamp in the headlock 🤔🤔

Rabbit punches are ok because you think Ward landed some too 🤔🤔

I wonder what Pritchard colon thinks about them 🤔🤔

[jas]

can i see these 3 low blows please

https://********/00XnEPpvY-A

[BoxingIsGreat]

So, even excusing Weeks for being as blind as a bat, why didn't he give Kovalev a count? He hadn't been in any serious trouble in the fight till that round, and the round was nearly over.

The ref had no power to do that. Under the Unified Rules, there is no standing 8 count in championship bouts.

Kovalev, as you guys like to point out, was not down. The ref, under the rules, had no choice but to stop the fight, unless he called the punch low and gave Ward a warning or point deduction (which wasn't the case).

The ref did the right thing.

[Citizen Koba]

Yeah, I'm sure what REALLY did Klitschko in was the 2nd to last punch which he blocks completely.

[IMG]https://media.*****.com/media/YWJBCXSep6w7K/*****.gif[/IMG]

Or maybe it was the rabbit punch landed earlier in this same combination.

Or maybe, just MAYBE, it isn't always about the last punch or two that lands at all. Maybe the ref was coming in because of the damage he received earlier in the round. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Klitschko looked gassed/finished. Maybe it had to do with how many punches he was throwing back. Maybe it had something to do with how ineffectual he appeared to be in getting away from/fending off Joshua.

Crazy idea, I know.

My point is just that the context matters. Just slowmo gifing a single punch and saying "it's illegal!" is not always a strong counter argument to a stoppage.

I get you man, and like I say I'm not at all of the opinion that the final low blow made the difference. I've said. I think Kovalev was done already from earlier shots. Nonetheless the fight was still ongoing and a foul occurred. Had Weeks waved the fight off before the low blow occurred you could maybe argue that he called it early but you couldn't say that he failed to respond appropriately to a rules infringement. Ultimately though, he didn't see that the shot was low (or at least that's my reading of it) and that's OK - it's the nature of the sport that refs don't always catch everything and we abide by the decision.

It's just my take but in general I don't think matters such as allowing the action to continue or allowing a fighter to press an advantage should excuse a foul, but you are right that inevitably it can become a judgement call - the margins between legal and illegal blows, mild and egregious fouls are often very fine and in the heat of the action a ref may have to make uncertain calls.

My point is simply that had Weeks seen clearly that Ward had hit Kovalev low before he waved the fight I think the rules would require him to act. You're right though - it real fight situations it's rarely gonna be that clear cut. All I'm trying to do is wrap my head around the interpretation of the rules and naturally it falls somewhere into the grey area between 'these are the rules' and 'the final decision lies with the ref'.

[uppercut510]

LMAO! Imagine if Wlad had decked AJ again when he was floundering around in the 6th round, this time with a low blow, and the ref had waved it off and given Wlad the win.

Then with the crowd going crazy, Eddie Hearn grabs the mic and says .. "Calm down everybody .. AJ was already done when he got hit below the belt .. it really ain't that important"

you are HURT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Graz]

Kovalev was getting his ass beat as well yet yall are crying about that..that was a much worse foul

Lol. Nobody's crying and Ward was winning you're right. Still no excuse for Wards fouls.

[kafkod]

The ref had no power to do that. Under the Unified Rules, there is no standing 8 count in championship bouts.

Kovalev, as you guys like to point out, was not down. The ref, under the rules, had no choice but to stop the fight, unless he called the punch low and gave Ward a warning or point deduction (which wasn't the case).

The ref did the right thing.

He was sitting on the bottom rope man!

According to the rules of boxing, a fighter being supported by the ropes is down.

Eg, in the first Kovalev Pascal fight, Pascal was staggered by a punch and leaned on the ropes for a second before standing upright again. The ref stopped Kovalev from following up, called a KD and gave Pascal a count.

[HarvardBlue]

Yeah, I'm sure what REALLY did Klitschko in was the 2nd to last punch which he blocks completely.

[IMG]https://media.*****.com/media/YWJBCXSep6w7K/*****.gif[/IMG]

Or maybe it was the rabbit punch landed earlier in this same combination.

Or maybe, just MAYBE, it isn't always about the last punch or two that lands at all. Maybe the ref was coming in because of the damage he received earlier in the round. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Klitschko looked gassed/finished. Maybe it had to do with how many punches he was throwing back. Maybe it had something to do with how ineffectual he appeared to be in getting away from/fending off Joshua.

Crazy idea, I know.

My point is just that the context matters. Just slowmo gifing a single punch and saying "it's illegal!" is not always a strong counter argument to a stoppage.

Just go along with whatever it is they're saying.

Ward is dirty...

Low blows are illegal...

The ref shouldn't have stopped the fight...

Kovalev is still undefeated...

[BrometheusBob.]

I get you man, and like I say I'm not at all of the opinion that the final low blow made the difference. I've said. I think Kovalev was done already from earlier shots. Nonetheless the fight was still ongoing and a foul occurred. Had Weeks waved the fight off before the low blow occurred you could maybe argue that he called it early but you couldn't say that he failed to respond appropriately to a rules infringement. Ultimately though, he didn't see that the shot was low (or at least that's my reading of it) and that's OK - it's the nature of the sport that refs don't always catch everything and we abide by the decision.

It's just my take but in general I don't think matters such as allowing the action to continue or allowing a fighter to press an advantage should excuse a foul, but you are right that inevitably it can become a judgement call - the margins between legal and illegal blows, mild and egregious fouls are often very fine and in the heat of the action a ref may have to make uncertain calls.

My point is simply that had Weeks seen clearly that Ward had hit Kovalev low before he waved the fight I think the rules would require him to act. You're right though - it real fight situations it's rarely gonna be that clear cut. All I'm trying to do is wrap my head around the interpretation of the rules and naturally it falls somewhere into the grey area between 'these are the rules' and 'the final decision lies with the ref'.

Nah I hear you. I think the best call, had he seen that the last blow was low, would at minimum be to give him time to recover. He may have been skeptical about it being low because Kovalev bellyached about shots that pretty much landed square on the beltline not a minute earlier in the round. Or maybe he really felt that they landed fine, I'm not sure.

EDIT: And to be clear, there are hypothetical scenarios in which the last shot being illegal is a 100% nondebatable counter. If say both guys are up and doing fine, ref isn't even thinking about stopping the fight, and one guy hits the other with a Cotto-Judah level low blow that sends the other guy to the floor clutching onto his nuts.. and then the ref waves off the fight? I think the commission would overturn that ruling.