Comments Thread For: Mikhalkin: Ward's Blows Were Low; Loss Didn't Diminish Kovalev

[skinnystev]

slappin' soggy is generally considered to be P4P the dirtiest fighter in the history of the sport nobody else even comes close

[Travycat]

This just has to stop. I'd rather read Amir Khan interviews at this point.

[skinnystev]

slappin' soggy hit kovalev with his best right hand kovalev did not blink thats when slappin soggy went to the ball shots it took multiple ball shots to do the job

[redruff]

Guess It couldn't have been the other body blows before that last one that had something to do with..Ward had the dude about to quit. And he made no argument when the ref stopped it.

[steady_p]

100% agree with Mikhalkin on that and still don't understand how people can say Kovalev got 'knockdown' with these kind of shots. When I get nutshot while sparring, I just stop and need times to recover.. can you imagine 3 lowblows in a row???? Did you already experienced something like that? Ward should have lost a point and Weeks should have give times to recover from these lowblows.
Lots of people commenting here are such biased, it's simply unimaginable.. All this trashtalk because he's Russian. If Kovalev would have 'knockout' Ward with 3 lowblows in a row, what would you have to say? That Kovalev knock Ward?? Not so sure about that.
Shame on you people.

Oh and I have to mention ; I was rooting for Ward, at the beginning, since I can't root for Kovy since he demolished my favorite fighter (Pascal). Since I'm not biased, I was really mad Ward won the first fight ; I had Kovy leading 7 to 5.

Stop crying, will some of you say ; I don't cry, I just point out what most people can't accept.

Agree with you. Only those who practice some boxing or fighting sports, know how much being hit 'down there' hurts and takes your breath away for some time. I've practiced Muay Thai, we used to spar with protections for genitals but it still hurted bad, when some punches (not to mention kicks or kneeIng...) ended there...

[Pakutu93]

Man Ward whooped his azzzz!!! That's why i hate mofos in here always making excuses!!! The bully got his 😡azz beat un the playground!!!

[Boxing Logic]

Kovalev was going to lose that fight anyway, from the camp to the fight itself it was a lost cause. The low blows just put an icing on the cake for him but he wasn't going to win that fight, he wasn't all there mentally and you could see it from the lead up to the fight and how they were in damage control rather than focused on fighting one of the best active fighters in the sport. The low blows didn't change the outcome of the second fight.

I guess they should have stopped Joshua-Klitschko then too after Klitschko knocked him down and Joshua could barely walk? You either dont know how boxing works, or you're a Ward fan. Same say there's not much difference given how little what Ward does actually resembles the rules of boxing. In any case, no one knows who would have won Kovalev-Ward II. It looked bad for Kovalev at first after the right hand, but then Ward couldn't hit him clean once after that, Kovalev kept blocking most of Ward's body shots with the crab defense, which is why Ward had to resort to trying to sneak punches in under the crab defense, which is what caused Ward to punch so low. Ward was tired too, throwing tons of shots trying to close the show, but not connecting on any of them except the low blows under the crab defense. For all we know he was punching himself out and would have been a sitting duck for Kovalev the next round if Kovalev survived, which he was well on his way to doing before Weeks stopped the fight. Ward was already pacing himself in the middle rounds and it almost looked like he was desperate, like it was his last stand, to just start fouling and make it a brawl in the final two rounds. Almost as if he knew he didn't have gas to make it the 12 rounds.

Why could that be, you ask, when Ward made it 12 in the first place? Maybe because Kovalev went to the body in the 2nd fight, unlike the first fight. Maybe because Ward added a ton of muscle for the rematch, which hurts stamina, and which also makes the weight cut harder, which can also hurt stamina. And maybe because Ward was also super fatigued at the end of the first fight, so much so that he almost went down on a half-power body shot Kovalev landed in the 12th round of the first fight.

So I understand you're a Ward fan, but if you actually analyze everything that went on, we really have no idea what would have happened. BOTH Kovalev fans and Ward fans were robbed by a likely corrupt referee of one of the most epic finishes to a high level boxing match that we have seen all decade. It's a crying shame. Defend Ward if you want, but please do not defend the way that we ALL as boxing fans were robbed of seeing something extraordinary, for once. Two top 10 P4P boxers going into the championship rounds of a grudge match, both operating on fumes. It would have been epic. We were ALL robbed of that.

[Xi_]

Kovah0e quit like b.itch and cried like a pvzzy afterwards. Reminds of how Poochiao cries after a loss.

[alohashirt]

I was always baffled by how much positive press HBO gave to Andre Ward. It seemed like years that he wasn't fighting and they continued to hype him. Then, finally, we get to see him fight Kovalev and this should have answered all the questions.

But then the first fight gets scored the wrong way? WTF? I was never a Kovalev fan but he obviously beat Ward the first time. The second fight Kovalev looked bad, but Ward didn't look much better. The ref, who I respected until then, was clearly on Ward's side, which ****** for us fans. The stoppage was awful - but the result was probably inevitable. All in all, it was a ****ty fight, and a ****ty end to the career of someone who had been given the label "pound for pound #1" without really demonstrating that as a professional.

It sucks because maybe Andre Ward could have been all that - but who will know?

[BillyBoxing]

Kovalev was going to lose that fight anyway, from the camp to the fight itself it was a lost cause. The low blows just put an icing on the cake for him but he wasn't going to win that fight, he wasn't all there mentally and you could see it from the lead up to the fight and how they were in damage control rather than focused on fighting one of the best active fighters in the sport. The low blows didn't change the outcome of the second fight.

I agree, yet the refereeing was bad.

I can understand bitterness from Kova doe.

First fight is 50-50, most fans and compubox have him as the winner, he scored a KD.

Second fights, he gets hit on the pubis and no warning from Weeks, plus early stoppage, let the man get dropped once at least.

Weeks punished both Kova and Ward (one defend himself, the other to get the KO)

I agree Ward was beating him anyway in that fight.

But man, I can understand Kova bitterness.