AMERICAN WARD WINS OVER RUSSIAN KOVALEV DESPITE KNOCKDOWN
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 21 Nov 2016
It was a battle reminiscent of The Cold War. Russia vs. America. Sergey Kovalev, the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation world light heavyweight champion against Andre Ward, the former WBA and WBC world supermiddleweight titlist and 2004 Athens Olympics gold medalist.
T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA was witness to the pound-for-pound encounter between the two top boxers of the world. Both undefeated and both about the same age and height. Kovalev had a reach advantage.
Kovalev scored a quick knockdown of Ward on all fours in the second round with a short punch as both warriors battled for glory.
Kovalev dominated the first few rounds with Ward recovering in the later rounds. All three judges scored the 12th round for Ward for the win.
Judges Burt A. Clements, Glenn Trowbridge, and John McKaie all scored 114-113 for a unanimous decision win for Ward. The challenger then wrested all three titles from the defending champion.
Per CompuBox, Kovalev threw 474 punches while Ward had 337 punches. Kovalev landed 126 (26.6%) punches while Ward connected 116 (34.4%) punches. Kovalev's jabs connected 48 of 242 for 19.8%. Ward landed 55 of 168 for 32.7%. Kovalev hit 78 of 232 power punches for 33.6% while Ward 61 of 169 power punches for
36.1%.
HBO commentator Harold Letterman scored the bout 116-111 for Kovalev, and commented that the bout was not close. Max Kellerman thought otherwise.
The Russian accused the American judges of favoritism. The only sure thing about the fight is the word Rematch.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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