Kovalev camp plans protest of loss to Ward

LAS VEGAS – After leaving no doubt who was the best light heavyweight around, Andre Ward talked about securing his place as one of the top poundfor-pound fighters in the world and perhaps even one day moving up to heavyweight.

The talk in Sergey Kovalev’s camp, meanwhile, was about protesting the outcome of Saturday night’s fight because the referee did nothing about borderline low blows that helped bring the fight to an end in the eighth round.

Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva, said she would protest to the Nevada Athletic Commission on Monday to try and erase the second straight loss Kovalev suffered at the hands of Ward. Duva admitted, though, she has little hopes a protest would succeed. “We have to try,” Duva said. “He was hitting him low the whole fight.”

Two blows near or below the belt line in the final seconds helped finish off Kovalev, who sat on the bottom ring rope as referee Tony Weeks called an end to the fight at 2:29 of the eighth round. Ward, who caused a brief pause in the fight in the second round when he hit Kovalev below the belt, was never warned after that by Weeks for low blows.