Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs) put on a low blow clinic in stopping former light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) in the 8th round on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In watching the replay of the stoppage, Kovalev said, “Low blow, again, low blow. I don’t know why they stopped the fight. I want to get another fight. I’ll kick his [expletive]. I want to get a rematch again.”
Sadly, Kovalev is unlikely to get a third fight with Ward, just based on the results of tonight’s fight. This was Kovalev’s second loss in a row to Ward, and it doesn’t matter if he was fouled repeatedly by Ward. This is about dollars and cents. The boxing public isn’t going to buy a third fight between Ward and Kovalev. Ward obviously knows that if he stays at light heavyweight, he’s going to have to face someone dangerous like Artur Beterbiev, and that’s a fight that he’d likely lose.
There would also be tons of pressure from boxing fans for Ward to fight WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. That’s a terrible match-up for Ward, because Stevenson is a huge puncher. Ward would likely be knocked out by Stevenson. If Ward moves up to cruiserweight or heavyweight, he might get a bigger payday than if he stays at light heavyweight. Ward smiled when he was asked by Kellerman if he’d be interested in moving to heavyweight.
You can imagine that Ward might be thinking about a big payday fight against IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. It would be an even worse mismatch than the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight. Of course, if Ward nailed Joshua with blows and he had a referee that didn’t see them, then maybe Ward could get another controversial knockout low blow win. That would be terrible though. I think they need to have replays for referee that mess up a call like Weeks tonight. That was bad for boxing and definitely terrible for Kovalev. To lose like that after he’d already lost a questionable decision to Ward last November.
