Andre Ward showed glimpses of greatness

The Sky Sports pundits all agreed that Andre Ward showed great character and skill to fight back from the heavy knockdown in round two.

In the end, Ward walked out of the arena the beneficiary of a controversial 114-113 score on all three ringside judges’ scorecards. In October 2010, Boone dropped a split eight-round decision to the Russian, and suffered a 2nd round technical knockout loss in the rematch in June 2012.

Andre Ward, left, throws a punch, leaving Sergey Kovalev, of Russian Federation, on the ropes during their light heavyweight boxing match, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, in Las Vegas.

Darnell Boone is the only fighter to have fought both Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward during their professional careers. He landed the better shots, he did the better work. It was tit-for-tat but Andre bossed the fight.

Personally, I scored the fight by a round in favor of Kovalev.

Kovalev deserves some respect too.

A drained Stevens struggled to get anything going in the final seven rounds as the crowd booed. He deserves a hand too.

“I don’t want to lose”, Ward explained.

Round 1: Ward comes out jabbing, both guys feeling the other out.

Andre Ward won three light-heavyweight world title belts from Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, but in his long battle for the hearts and pockets of boxing fans it is probably still a close fight.

It was a razor-thin decision, but then again every round was razor-thin. Of course, I am disappointed but life is still good. 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. But Ward should effectively jab enough to frustrate Kovalev, and intermittently land his big left hook, to earn the win on a unanimous decision. “I hope to fight next in January or February”. I don’t want to say my opinion, there are witnesses here. I give the round to Ward.

This was the seventh fight in boxing history (but the third in 2016) in which two undefeated fighters, both with 30 or more wins, fought for a world title.

Ironically, this sudden danger made him the best Ward he has ever been. This was considered a risky first fight for both fighters, as many lauded prospects try and find something akin to a live body in their pro debuts. Ward however was more concerned with celebrating his victory and deferred that question to his manger, James Prince. For me, it could’ve gone either way. “I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight”. It was quite clear it was the wrong decision.

The grappling that Ward dominated en route to the win understandably wasn’t seen in the same light by Kovalev’s team. Close round but I give it to Kovalev.

“I got off the canvas against the hardest puncher in the division and smiled”, Ward said. If Ward vs Kovalev 2 is a continuation of their first fight, we could see Ward cruise to wider victory because he’s apparently solved the puzzle of Sergey Kovalev. You can make it to the top if you can get American audience, if people will like you, if people going to buy tickets to your fights, if TV will buy your fights.