Comments Thread For: Sergey Kovalev - From a Single Point to a Question Mark

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By Cliff Rold - So much can change in boxing with a single point on the scorecards. No one knows that better than former unified light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KO). With a little different luck one year ago, or maybe just better judging, Kovalev could have been in the driver's seat. The results of his rematch with Andre Ward, a stoppage loss, quieted some of the debate from their first fight, but not all of it. There are still plenty of folks who adamantly believe Kovalev earned a win over Ward that night...
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[club fighter]

He did win (in my eyes) the 1st bout, but it doesn't matter.
Kov got taken apart in the rematch and he just needs to accept it and move on.

[Flabble Scrote]

Kovalev won the first fight but before that he seemed to lose some of that Spartan brutality he had coming up like vs Cleverly for instance, he looks softer

[Dasmius Shinobi]

Kovalev won the first fight but before that he seemed to lose some of that Spartan brutality he had coming up like vs Cleverly for instance, he looks softer

In the Isaac Chilemba fight too.

[anyesi@aol.com]

KKKovalev deserved the win in the 1st fight. But his hate towards Ward ate him alive, unable to focus on task at hand in the 2nd fight.

[landotter]

KKKovalev deserved the win in the 1st fight. But his hate towards Ward ate him alive, unable to focus on task at hand in the 2nd fight.

While I sincerely disagree with racial aspect of your post (despite the eventual fall out, he had zero problem with allowing John David Jackson training him), I agree with your post in general. His hate of Andre Ward was his undoing more than any other part of either fight. He truly thought he was the better man and the better boxer and the loss in the first fight ate at his ego and his self worth. While Ward stayed professional, Kovalev became emotional and bitter. The second fight showed that boxing is a thinking man's game, a focused man game. It is why the term "the sweet science" has endured, because there is an art to it. If you are purely emotional or a fraud, you get beat soundly.

We are about to find out if those two loses were because Kovalev was too emotional, or if he was a bit of a fraud and overrated. He should win this coming fight, but 2018 will have zero sympathy for him if he is one of the two.

[hitking]

I agree with the article for the most part. But for slightly different reasons. I think that regardless of who you thought deserved the decision in the first fight. And for the record, I wouldn’t have had a problem with a close nod either way. It was fairly obvious that Ward had figured Kovalev out by the second half of that fight. And IMO he would have stopped Kovalev had it been a 15rd fight.

I think Kovalev and his team knew that. And had Sergey been awarded the decision, they would have shyed away from an immediate rematch. Ward isn’t a draw. Nor is he popular among hardcore fans. And they way the boxing culture is now, Kovalev likely would have been applauded for not giving Ward an immediate rematch.

So regardless of who you get deserved the decision. The boxing gods seemed to put things in place to assure that we would get to see who the legitimate superior fighter between the two was. And it was ultimately Andre Ward.