Kovalev-Ward final punch stats

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) unseated IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) last Saturday night in beating him by a 12 round unanimous deciusion to rop away his three world titles in front of large audience of fans at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight was so close that the punch stats showed very little to separate the two fighters. Ward won the fight by the scores 114-113, 114-113, and 114-113. I thought Ward won the fight by two or three rounds. Kovalev was no longer effective after round 4. I gave Ward the last eight rounds of the fight. Most of the judges had him winning the last six. That sounds about right.

Ward connected on 116 of 337 for a connect percentage of 34 percent, according to CompuBox stats. Kovalev landed 126 of 474 shots for a lower percentage of 27 percent. Stats like this never really tell you anything though, because the punches are spread out over a number of rounds making it impossible to know who the better fighter of the two was. The three judges already spoke, and they unanimously picked Ward out as the winner. Since these are processional judges, you can’t question the decision. It’s final. Boxing fans unhappy with the decision are just going to have to learn to live with it. How did Kovalev think he was going to beat Ward by out-landing him by just 10 punches?

Kovalev did a good job early in the fight against Ward in knocking him down in the 2nd and getting the better of him in most of the first four rounds of the contest. Ward made adjustments in the 5th round by focusing on landing accurate single shots to the head of Kovalev, and tying him up expertly when he would throw a shot and miss, which was something that happened frequently. If anyone is to blame for things not working out last Saturday night, it’s Kovalev who should be the one who should be taking responsibility for his loss.

If he had shown more boxing skills, and fought smarter, then maybe he would have gotten the decision win. It was obvious what Kovalev needed to do for him to win. In hindsight, Kovalev probably would have won the fight if he’d attacked Ward in an all-out manner in every round, and not holding back for anything. Kovalev needed to throw nonstop punches at all times. When I say that Kovalev should have thrown non-stop, it’s exactly what I mean.

If Kovalev had jumped on Ward the way that middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) attacked welterweight Kell Brook in their fight last September, I think Kovalev might have beaten Ward if he hadn’t adapted again to what he was doing. Kovalev didn’t do that though. He fought in a cautious manner, and got caught up in all Ward’s feints, and was beaten to the punch by him on a frequent basis. The judges were scoring all the head snapping shots that Ward was landing in the fight. Kovalev wasn’t landing punches in the second half of the fight, which is why only one judge gave him a round in the second half of the fight.

“It’s the wrong decision. I don’t want to say my opinion,” Kovalev said after the fight. “The witnesses are here. They saw it. It’s my job. It was a fight of my life. I am disappointed in the judges’ decision. [Ward] got maybe a few rounds. I agree with that. I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight. It is the USA and all the judges were from the USA. It’s a sport. Don’t make it politics. It’s a sport, and I won the fight.”

It’s always bad when fighters start to complain about them losing by decisions. Instead of complaining, the fighters like Kovalev need to accept responsibility for them not doing what they needed to do. Ward made it clear what he was doing. He was focusing on connecting with single shots from the outside. He was waiting on Kovalev, and doing a good job of picking him off. Kovalev didn’t have the hand speed or the ring smarts to realize what he needed to do in order to take advantage of the single shots that Ward was throwing.

When you face someone that is only throwing single shots, it’s usually wise to try and overwhelm them by attacking. Kovalev didn’t do that. It’s his fault and the fault of his trainer John David Jackson for him not making that move. If I’d been Kovalev’s trainer, that’s what I would have told him to do, because he wasn’t getting anywhere fighting a game of chess with the chess-master Ward.

When Kovalev started to talk about the judges being from the USA, the crowd booed him loudly. They weren’t willing to hear Kovalev making excuses for his loss to Ward. The boxing fans at the T-Mobile Arena didn’t want to hear the excuses from Kovalev. They wanted him to show some class by giving Ward his credit he was due. That was another missed opportunity for Kovalev. Instead of taking the high roach by showing some class when the microphone was stuck in front of his face, he talked about him being a visitor to the U.S, and how he thought he’d lost due to politics.

Even if Kovalev believed that stuff, he should have kept quiet and taken the high road by giving Ward credit for his win. That’s what you’re supposed to do as the beaten opponent. You don’t start complaining about how you think Ward won only three rounds, which is what Kovalev did. That just sounded like sour grapes on Kovalev’s part. He was complaining about his loss, not taking credit for it, and then blaming the judges for them not giving him the win that clearly didn’t deserve. There were tons of missed opportunities for Kovalev last night. He could have won the fight if he had fought better. He could have given Ward credit for him fighting smarter than he did. Kovalev did neither. He just complained and ended up looking like a poor loser.

If Kovalev is going to fail to accept it when he loses fights, it’s going to be bad news for his career, because he’s never going to learn from his mistakes. The three judges gave Kovalev a valuable gift last night by telling him that he wasn’t quite good enough to beat Ward with the way he fought. Kovalev should have thanked the judges and then went back and studied what he did wrong. It was obvious. Kovalev didn’t attack Ward in the way he needed to. You don’t attack a pot shot fighter like Ward by fighting in the same manner as him. You beat him by overwhelming them with shots. You also beat them by fighting on the inside rather than just holding like Kovalev was doing. If Kovalev had been busy on the inside, he might have won all those close rounds.

For Kovalev to have beaten a pin point puncher like Ward, he needed to out-land him by at least 200 punches rather than just 10. Kovalev needed to throw between 700 to 1000 punches in the fight. It was possible if he’d attacking with sustained flurries instead of throwing one or two punches at a time last night.