Kovalev-Ward Post Fight Press Conference

Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev will meet again real soon, and figure their rematch to be bigger than their pay-per-view rumble Saturday night that ended with Ward capturing a unanimous decision and the WBO, IBF and WBA light heavyweight titles. Ward said he’s game. “Sergey has no inside game, so I focused on mine, and that made the difference”.

There’s a lot of controversy today about the results of the Kovalev-Ward fight.

“He realized I wasn’t going anywhere and I was stepping on the gas”. You could hear the crowd feel like this was the wrong decision when it was announced.

“It’s nothing in me that wanted to run, duck, dodge, hide it was just “I’ve got to get this back” and thankfully I had the rounds to try and get some more rounds in the bank”, Ward said. “He’s a local. And all the judges were from the United States of America”. He is a boxer. “Don’t make it like politics”, he said. Around the sixth round or so, Ward (31-0) began measuring Kovalev for his hard left jab, and also threw in some effective body punches. A damaged but not discouraged Ward expertly fought the final frames with a sense of urgency, later revealing “I felt like I needed every single round”.

Neither fighter stood out as a clear and convincing victor, with many favoring Kovalev’s aggression and the early knockdown as a factor while others saw Ward drawing Kovalev into his fight and controlled the second half of the fight.

It was then that the crowd and momentum seemed to favor Kovalev, who looked his usual aggressive self.

In the second round, Kovalev nearly ended the fight with a ferocious right hand that dropped Ward near his corner.

The punch statistics, like the scorecards, were narrowly decisive. But Ward kept punching and landed some good shots of his own in the middle rounds, and there were plenty of close rounds that could have gone either way. But Ward took control in the later rounds, landed plenty of clean shots; it wasn’t a clean win, but it won’t rank among the worst decisions, either.

Kovalev complained Ward either ran too much or held too much.

There was a fair amount of holding in the bout.

Kovalev has the right to be mad. Kovalev had clearly done his homework, and was not going to allow Ward to use his veteran tricks on the inside.

Main Events CEO Kathy Duva told reporters she will send a letter to Ward promoter Roc Nation Sports on Sunday to officially inform them the immediate rematch clause will be exercised.

“The wrestling was outrageous”, Duva said. I really wasn’t hurt.

Another good round in the seventh, with Ward connecting with 3 stiff jabs, drew loud cheers, but Kovalev was still landing shots. 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. Clements awarded Kovalev the 12th. And a Ward victory would give the U.S.an 11-10 lead over Great Britain/Ireland, which just lost Tyson Fury from that list when the heavyweight vacated his title. “He’s got a hard head”.

Gvozdyk, 29, is trained by super-featherweight world champion Vasyl Lomachenko’s father. Stevens is considered an outside contender to be Canelo Alvarez’s next opponent.

As everyone in the boxing world argues the decision, the one thing that is inarguable was how entertaining the fight was.

Two-time Olympic gold-medal victor Claressa Shields made her pro debut against Franchon Crews, and the two slugged it out for four rounds.