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.