Krusher Kovalev On How Many Rounds He Thought He Lost To Ward

The fight was televised by HBO pay-per-view.

In a surprising unanimous decision on Saturday, Olympic gold medallist Ward edged the powerful Russian 114-113 as he improved his ideal record to 31-0. Ward was 30-0 with 15 knockouts and Kovalev was 30-0-1 with 26 knockouts. He enters the fray in the light heavyweight division now at 32 years old, and he is looking to make up for lost time and opportunity.

Kathy Duva, Kovalev’s promoter, was not thrilled with the work of referee Robert Byrd, who appeared apathetic toward all the holding. I don’t really see how anyone dominated the fight. Of course I want a rematch and I will kick his ass.

Here’s the round-by-round updates.

Ward can claim light-heavyweight honours to add to the super-middleweight belts he already won in his previous reign at 168 pounds.

Hence Round 1 of the Ward vs Kovalev rematch would essentially be Round 13 of a bout that was trending for Ward. It all culminated quickly in the second round when Ward was put on the canvas by a straight right from his Russian opponent.

Andre Ward, left, punches Sergey Kovalev, of Russian Federation, during their light heavyweight boxing match, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, in Las Vegas. Kovalev didn’t protest too much but made his opinion clear, and played to the audience.

The Oakland-born fighter recovered from a second-round flooring to come out on top 114-113 in a fight that went the full 12-round distance.

Ward was the super-middleweight champion before he took a two-year sabbatical from the sport. The Associated Press had Kovalev ahead 116-111. Kovalev walking Ward down, then attacks. Kovalev hurting Ward with those right hands.

Things looked bad for Ward early.

Kovalev landed more punches, was a more frequent aggressor on the aggregate, and landed the fight’s only knockdown, yet every close round (and there were more than half a dozen) went to Ward. Kovalev misses with an uppercut. His punches no longer were so frightening, and he wasn’t winning the grapples anymore when they got tied up.

“America gave me opportunity”, Kovalev said.

Round 4: Hard left by Ward glances off Kovalev. You can argue that Kovalev won the 10th (this writer says “no”) and the 12th (this writer says “yes” – he was landing the hellacious body shots that round). The American was rocked by jabs and various other punches leading up to that moment and when he was felled, it seemed as though “Krusher” was going to earn himself yet another highlight reel knockout. “Could have thrown my jab a little more. That’s why I’m going for Kovalev to win by late stoppage”. He leads 39-36. Ward landed more than that Saturday – 9.7 per round – but still less than the weight class average of 16.1.

But because Kovalev is a fighter in the true sense of the word, he welcomed those clinches. Neither fighter has an appealing alternative; Adonis Stevenson continues to publicly clamor for a fight against Kovalev or Ward, but he has never been willing to back it up.

In other words, the matchup was consistently considered one that would elevate the victor to greatness while the other would go back to the drawing board.