Many fight fans and media alike felt Sergey Kovalev had done more than enough to defeat Andre Ward in their first fight back in November as the the 2004 Olympian won by a controversial unanimous decision.
This time around though, Ward left no doubt as he defeated Kovalev by TKO at 2:25 of the eighth round to retain his unified light heavyweight titles and soar to become the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Sporting News had it 67-66 Kovalev at the time of the stoppage.
The beginning part of the fight it looked like Kovalev figured out the mistakes he made in the first fight by going to the body and being the aggressor. Ward came back though and started to go to work connecting with the left hook and becoming the heavier puncher.
Heading into the sixth round, Ward and Kovalev were exhausted and mouses under their eyes. Kovalev had appeared to pull through and take control fo the fight as he rocked Ward with a right hand. To Ward’s credit he bounced back in the seventh and in a precursor to how the fight would end, going to the body.
In the eighth and final round, Ward connected on a beautiful right hand which stunned Kovalev who tried to come back with a left hand to little effect. Ward sensing he had “The Krusher” in trouble connected on another flush right hand and then landed a hard left to the body which hurt Kovalev.
Ward sensing the end was near got Kovalev against the ropes, throwing left hands to the body with everything he had. Tony Weeks had seen enough and stopped the bout.
Ward remains undefeated in 32 fights and told Max Kellerman of HBO after the fight that he is the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. When he asked what was next, Ward said he may move up to cruiserweight or possibly heavyweight for the right fight.
Kovalev whose now 30-2 has lost back-to-back fight was livid afterwards saying the shots at the end of the fight were below the belt and Weeks stopped the fight prematurely.
Here was our live coverage of Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev.
