Partially Kov's fault for crying wolf earlier in the match to try and catch a breather. It was ending that round one way or another, probably a good thing for Kov as Ward was teeing off on him.

Had 4th and 5th for Ward but could see someone giving him 3-4 rounds.

I thought going into the round Kovalev was winning, 5-2 or 4-3. Both fighters were pretty gassed, they were moving at a high pace, a lot of punches thrown and a lot of tying up.

If I'm a Ward fan, I'm concerned that he's eating heavy jabs a few times per round, those shots really seem to take a toll.

If I'm a Kovalev fan, I'm concerned that he's over punching and leaving himself open to a pretty darn good counter puncher.

Round 8 happens, and here's the first punch that does real damage to Kovalev - http://www.express.co.uk/sport/boxin...stoppage#t=25s

Based on instructions -
That does not look low, it looks legal. Weeks appears to have handled this perfectly here. Hell, we're lucky as fans that Ward did not press when Kovalev was hurt there, it would've been 100% legal (but marred the end result even more).

This means the clean right to the head was the result of 100% legal damage prior. So Kovalev was hurt and in real trouble as the result of legal punches.

Then you have the ending:


Unfortunately, that was clearly low and a devastating blow. That should've resulted in Kovalev being given recovery time, which would've really helped him recover not only from the nut shot you see in the frame, but the legal damage Ward had done. The round would likely be 10-8, unless Kovalev landed a few punches with 35 seconds left, post recovery. You'd then have Ward up pretty big on 2 of the actual scorecards going into the 9th, and most fans likely feeling it was a close fight but with Ward having clear momentum going into the final 4 rounds.

At the end of the day, maybe things didn't shake out well for Kovalev in each of these two fights, but you'd be hard pressed to say he deserves a third shot. You had your man down in the first fight and you gassed out late, and in the 2nd fight you legitimately got hurt badly by two punches in the 8th, a few good shots away from a fair loss.

Thanks a lot RT for those links.

This fight will be better than Floyd Pac. Conor doesn't have the skills to go 12. It's either ending in 1st by KO or 4th. Conor might also get lucky. Gonna be good one.

why didn't kovalev just take a knee after the last nut shot?

No time, Weeks already stepped in and stopped it

Rigo KO being changed to a NC by NSAC.

Got this one right imo

Pacman horn gonna be on ESPN for free

Too bad about Tim Hague. RIP.

Sorry should have worded it differently. This fight will be more entertaining to the casual viewer. Pac and Floyd going 12 might be considered more entertaining to the hardcore boxing viewer and people itt.

"Andre Ward says "anything is possible" regarding a move up in weight which could see him meet WBA and IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua."

Ahahahahahahah, hahahahah. Ward vs Joshua...lol.

i think ward v like ruiz or something could be a match he could win but no chance v joshua although **** he would make a ton of money

i think it's funny that ward seems to want no part of those eastern european cruiserweights

i wouldn't mind ward v bellew i think there is a fight ward could win at a reasonable weight for what i assume would be a pretty huge payday in england but idk ppl kind of hate bellew there too i think so who knows. maybe i'm crazy. i think ward could fill out pretty well although his style is so bullying as opposed to being super slick and defensive that perhaps it wouldn't end well

i would rather ward just face stevenson or retire though. i guess there could be some big fights in the future with gvodysk or beterbiev in europe

i really hope kovalev doesn't take more than one breather fight and stays in the game though. ward deserved the win but i still thought over all the rounds they fought kovalev won more rounds than ward. the 2nd fight was even closer than the first over the first 6 rounds or so, so many swing rounds

Just a way of rejecting a notion without actually doing it.

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Canelo agrees to fight for IBF belt against GGG. The IBF has the 10 lb. Rehydration limit.

Didn't see that coming.

Additionally Canelo says he has no desire to fight for the WBC belt.

i don't know as much as i should about the cruiserweights bc never on tv here but this world boxing super series tournament looks like it is gonna be sick

dorcitos, gassiev, briedis, wlodarczyk and still 4 more sports open. apparently the top seeded guys get to pick who they fight in the quarters which will be hilarious

Surprised with the reaction here to the disgusting, corrupt farce in the Ward/Kovalev fight. I realise a lot of you guys are Americans but between Weeks refereeing suspiciously like a man who has been paid off (AW incidentally is managed by big time gangstster J. Prince) along with the blatant cheating by Ward from the get go and the whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth (as well as a hole in my wallet).

I am well aware boxing has a chequered history and I don't mind rough stuff to a degree as long as it is done sneakily a la B-Hop but Ward knew he had a licence to nut shot Kovalev Golota style all night. I naively bought that the 1st fight was just incompetence from the judges but now it would seem team Ward stacked the deck to the point where the result was pre-determined.

Meh, I think my feelings towards to the end of that fight are dampened by the facts that 1) Kovalev had been fighting smarter, but slower and 2) He was clearly completely gassed.

The shots that weakened him were borderline at best, and the shot that ended it was 100% low, but even if those never happened, Ward was going to win every final round in all likelihood. Given that, it's hard to get super upset.

yeah i'm with RT. i am a kovalev fan, thought he def deserved to win the first fight (altho short of a robbery) and felt like he was up a round in this one (tons of swing rounds though) and he did get ****ed by weeks. he was probably going to lose though it looked like. it's very disappointing he didn't have a chance to come back, we all thought joshua/klit was about to be done twice and klit then joshua turned it around looking even worse than kovalev. it is a shame that both fights ended in such controversy

i had 100 on kovalev at 5-1 on kovalev decision in 1st fight so i'm with you on the wallet thing lol. i also lost 30 bucks on this fight but just a friendly wager with friends. weeks did a poor job but i do think ward was looking like he was gonna win or possibly knock kov out

Kovalev was going to get knocked out that fight I think no matter what so even though I agree with all those points it's ultimately moot. I honestly wouldn't mind a trilogy given i think nearly everyone had Kovalev up at the time and think most people thought he won the first fight as well.

Huck just added. I don't know what he has left in him, but that's a pretty solid addition, his previous long run as champ makes him a worthy top 8 here.

This is already an excellent tournament, exceeded my expectations, but adding Usyk would make this a legendary tourney.

I was actually shocked at Usyk wasn't the first name in the top 8. IMO, he's the best CW out there. Glowacki not being there so far is pretty bad as well especially given that he KOed Huck.

Bellew would be a great addition but I suspect he'll keep going at HW. Lebedev's two losses were close split decisions. He'd be great as well.

Who's in the line up so far?

In regard to the SMW tournament, Eddie Hearn's said he wants to put Callum Smith forward for it but only if Anthony Dirrell enters. Smith will lose his title shot otherwise.

Hearn hinted he might be looking to enter Mike Perez onto the CW list.

"Right now, the field for the eight-man cruiserweight tournament looks like this:

Mairis Briedis, WBC titleholder
Murat Gassiev, IBF titleholder
Yunier Dorticos, WBA titleholder
Marco Huck
Krzysztof Wlodarczyk
ESPN reports that Krysztof Glowacki, another former titleholder, is also signed for the tournament but hasn’t been announced. Another current titleholder, Oleksandr Usyk, and Dmitry Kudrayshov are also “close to deals to enter the tournament,” according to the report. If either of those fall through, Junior Makabu and Youri Kalenga, two more quality fighters, have expressed interest."


from BLH. pretty sick lineup. i'm gonna have to watch some of these fighters on youtube before it starts

Looking at that CW list/replacements, Perez has no chance of getting on board.