Andre Ward Defeats Sergey Kovalev – Boxing World Is Split On Verdict!

By Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini

Las Vegas, Nevada, at the T-Mobile Arena, Andre “S.O.G” Ward, 31-0, 15 KO’s won a controversial 12-round unanimous decision over Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, 30-1-1, 26 KO’s to win the WBA, WBO, and IBF World Light Heavyweight titles. All three judges scored the bout 114-113 in favor of Ward, who won all of the last six rounds on two scorecards, and five of six on a third. Furthermore, Ward won the final round on two of the scorecards.

“Krusher” stunned Ward midway through the first round with a solid left jab, and put down the challenger with a right hand in the second round. Ward recovered from the flash knockdown and appeared to never be in danger. Kovalev appeared to have won the first six rounds of the fight, even though most of the rounds could have gone either way (with the exception of the second round). Kovalev threw 216 punches in the first six rounds, connecting on 24.1% of them. In comparison, Ward only threw 132 punches while landing on 27.3% of them.

Ward, who abandoned his game plan of fighting on the inside, started to counterpunch more effectively from the outside over the second half of the fight. From the seventh round on, Ward connected on 39.0% of his total punches (80/205), whereas Kovalev connected on only 28.7% (74/258) of his total punches. However, “The Krusher” landed and threw more punches in the tenth round, a round that all three judges scored for Ward.

Many at ringside felt that Kovalev was the winner, because he was the aggressor throughout the fight and threw the more meaningful punches. Overall, Kovalev connected on 26.6% of his total punches (126/474) while Ward connected on 34.4% of his total punches (116/337). In contrast, Kovalev landed 33.6% (78/232) of his power punches as compared to Ward, who landed 36.1% (61/169) of his power shots.

However, when Ward started to find his timing and range, he controlled more of the action with his jab. Ward landed 32.7% (55/168) of his jabs as compared to Kovalev, who only landed 19.8% (48/242) of his. From the seventh round on, Ward won the second half of the fight by slipping more of Kovalev’s punches and landing his own jab more effectively.

”It was a fight of my life,” Kovalev said. ”I am disappointed in the judges’ decision. He got maybe a few rounds, I agree with that. I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight.”

”I knew it was going to be a tough fight – it was the 1st time in my career I was dropped,” Ward said. ”He did everything I expected him to do. He started to fight like I expected.”

A rematch looks very likely. Kathy Duva, Kovalev’s promoter, said afterwards, ”He won the first six rounds so I don’t know how he could lose a decision.” Duva said. ”I’m happy we had a great fight. Boxing needed a great fight”. She said that they would use the rematch clause in the contract for a second fight.

“This was a beautiful thing. We did it baby,” Ward said. ”I’m a five-time world champion in two different weight classes. Man, it’s amazing.”

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