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Panel: A Ward winner… just!
- Updated: November 20, 2016
Andre Ward was a heavy favourite but in the end the unanimous decision didn’t tell the fully story of his light-heavyweight win over Sergey Kovalev.
The American suffered a knockdown in the second round and the Russian showed the sort of intelligence many didn’t expect and the technical and tenacious encounter was as close as the outcome.
So with two of The Panel sat ringside in Las Vegas and the other three watching closely from the Sky Sports studio, here’s what they had to say…
Paulie Malignaggi
I thought they both fought a tactically desirable fight but I had Ward ahead. He landed the better shots, he did the better work. Listen, Kovalev did good work too. It was tit-for-tat but Andre bossed the fight. In the later part of the fight he was bossing it physically and you could see Kovalev almost tiring on the inside, while Andre you could see had a little more left.
Kovalev deserves some respect too. He was up on the ropes to get some appreciation from the crowd. He deserves a hand too. This was a close fight and I wouldn’t mind the rematch at all. I have to disagree with some of the media guys because all they do is score pressure – even it it’s ineffective. You have to make sure it’s effective.
Matthew Macklin
It was a razor-thin decision, but then again every round was razor-thin. I don’t really see how anyone dominated the fight. Every round was close …
