Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Sports

Op-Ed: Why Kovalev deserves immediate rematch against Ward

While Ward was happy about his victory, Kovalev cried foul saying the judges’ decision was wrong and made with political undertones. All judges scored the fight 114-113 in favor of Ward.

Kovalev had a good reason to complain because in the eyes of the majority of the crowd and many of the media people covering the event have scored the fight in favor of Kovalev. ESPN and Yahoo Sports scored the fight in favor of Kovalev.

“It’s the wrong decision,” Kovalev said. “He got maybe a few rounds, I agree with that. I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight,” he added.

Ward survived a second round knockdown and was behind in the scorecards in the first half of the 12-round fight. But he seemed to have gained strength in the closing rounds and landed clear power shots which proved to be the clincher in the unanimous decision win.

What is surprising though is the fact that Ward outpointed Kovalev in Compubox punch stats where Ward landed higher percentage of 34 against Kovalev’s 27 percent. For sure, the judges must have noticed the edge in number of punches that landed in favor of Ward in finalizing their individual scorecards.

Ward was happy about the judges’ decision perhaps knowing that he was ahead on punch statistics which in the end would count more insofar as the judges are concerned.

“I was not surprised when I heard the decision,” he said. “I don’t know where you got that from. I know it was a close fight. The crowd, you can hear they thought I won,” he added.

While Ward is comfortable with the verdict, the popular voice is for an immediate rematch to clear the air in what many fans and observers say that the judges erred in their controversial verdict.

Written By

You may also like:

World

Immigration is a symptom of a much deeper worldwide problem.

Entertainment

The Swedish city of Malmo is preparing to host the Eurovision Song Contest in early May under high security.

Business

Traveling in NY is already costly, but it just got worse: transit authorities have approved a controversial $15 toll, set to take effect in...

Tech & Science

A look at the sector that could help annually boost the global economy by $1 trillion