Kovalev admits that Andre Ward was better in rematch

By Chris Williams: Former light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev showed some humility in admitting that Andre “SOG” Ward was the better in their rematch last Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s good that Kovalev, 34, is coming out and being a good sport. The last thing boxing needs is another sour loser. It’s time for Kovalev to move on now. He tried his best, but he wasn’t good enough to beat Ward. Kovalev needs to take his career in another direction. If you can’t beat a fighter on two attempts, then you need to move on. The last thing Kovalev needs right now is a third straight loss to Ward.

Kovalev lost the first fight against Ward last November by a 12 round unanimous decision. Instead of giving Ward credit, Kovalev complained and said he should have won. It was a bad look for Kovalev to be complaining.

Ward stopped Kovalev in the 8th round with a series of hard body shots that had him bent over like a pretzel in the ring. Referee Tony Weeks had no choice but to save Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) from being hurt any further by Ward’s hard body shots.

This is Kovalev admitting that he had been beaten by the better man:

“I admit. Ward was better in the rematch,” said Kovalev. “I give him credit that he did his homework with ‘A’ and showed his professionalism and discipline. But he did not put an end to our clash. I fought against two people in the ring. I’ll be back,” said Kovalev.

There it is, folks. Kovalev is giving Ward the full credit. Granted, it’s a little late for Kovalev to be giving Ward credit now, but it’s better late than never. Kovalev should have been giving Ward credit after the fight, because he would have been booed a little less by the boxing fans. I don’t like the part where Kovalev says, “I fought with two people in the ring.” That tells me that Kovalev still thinks referee Tony Weeks allowed Ward to hit him low. That’s not the case at all. The replays showed that Ward hit Kovalev on the BELT Line, not belt.

Kovalev should know whether he was hit low or not. I would hate to think that Kovalev is just using the low blow thing to get out of being seen as having been stopped with body shots, but that’s the way it looked to me, and to the many boxing fans that saw the fight. Even the HBO broadcasting crew weren’t complaining about the punches.

If they thought Ward had hit Kovalev low in the 8th, they would have been talking about it. The HBO commentators don’t pull any punches. They admit when a fighter has been hit low. Why would they not admit it? The boxing fans can see for themselves that Ward hit Kovalev on the belt line. It’s not their fault that Kovalev couldn’t handle the body shots that Ward was hitting him with. Kovalev should have kept his guard low if he couldn’t handle the body shots.

Kovalev was done in the 8th. If Tony Weeks hadn’t stopped the fight, Ward would have put Kovalev down for the count. Let’s pretend that Kovalev wasn’t hurt by the body shots by a big right hand that Ward nailed him with at the start of the round. Kovalev was wearing down by the 7th. You could tell by Kovalev’s body language that he was tired. When Kovalev turned completely around in the 7th, I knew then that he was done for the night and wouldn’t be able to fight much longer. Sure enough, Ward hurt a tired looking Kovalev with a right hand at the start of the 8th, and the fight was over moments later. Assuming that Kovalev made it out of the eighth round, Ward would have been all over him in the 9th round and he would have finished him off in that round.

I’d like to see Kovalev give Ward a little more credit than what he said. I think Kovalev needs to grovel a little bit more. Who knows? Maybe Ward will give him a third fight if Kovalev does a little more groveling. It must have been hard for Kovalev to admit that Ward was the better fighter. It’s good that Kovalev gave Ward credit, because it shows character. If Kovalev can keep that up in his future interviews, with the boxing media, it would make him look good. It still wouldn’t change the fact that Kovalev has now been beaten twice in a row by Ward, but it would at least show that he’s willing to give him credit.

Kovalev did a good job of jabbing Ward. His jab was first rate. But once Kovalev started getting hit to the body, he was done for. Kovalev does not take body shots very well at all.

At the post-fight press conference, Kovalev wasn’t giving Ward any credit. He wouldn’t admit that he was the best fighter he’d ever faced despite the fact that he was beaten twice by him. That looked bad. How do you not say Ward is the best when you were beaten twice by him?

The last punch that Ward landed in the 8th round may have been a little low, but Kovalev was already stooped over and defenseless at the time. Ward could have hit Kovalev anywhere and it would have had the same result with Tony Weeks stepping in to stop the fight. He had to stop it because Kovalev was hurt to the body and had. Ward was standing there ready to keep feeding Kovalev with body shots.

Ward wasn’t going to get tired. He could have kept hitting Kovalev with body shots for the remainder of the round. Had Kovalev made it to the 9th, Ward would have been focusing entirely on his body because he knew then that he couldn’t handle it to the body. Kovalev is one of those fighters that doesn’t take getting hit to the body very well.

At the end of the day, the Nevada State Athletic Commission decided that the shots that Ward hit Kovalev with weren’t low. They went by referee Tony Weeks, who declined to have replays done because he was standing directly in front of Kovalev with a bird’s eye look of the final 3 body shots that Ward hit him with. The referee could have let the fight go on a tad bit longer, but Kovalev wasn’t last much longer anyway. He was done. Weeks could see it, and he did the right thing in stopping the fight before Ward put Kovalev down on the canvas.