Ward takes low road to the top
THErE were enough low blows to threaten a man’s fertility but in the end there was no denying that he who calls himself Son of God reigns above all others as the best pound-forpound fighter on earth.
Andre Ward put the question after his stoppage of Sergey Kovalev: ‘Am I the No1 now?’
Clearly he believes so but having accepted that it is not his place to provide the answer — ‘I don’t have a vote’ — he waited for the verdict of others.
It is pretty much unanimous. At least for the moment.
The fight capital of Las Vegas stood to roar its approval for that accolade and most of us watching around the world added our assent. American Ward, the high priest of defence, had removed any serious doubt by attacking one of the most dangerous punchers in the ring.
Krusher Kovalev was reduced to a wobbling jelly clutching an agonised belly as he sat on a rope midway through the eighth round of their rematch.
Yes, a couple of the punches which lowered him into submission landed below the belt. Yes, referee Tony Weeks should have given the russian time to recover. Yes, Kovalev could have carried on a little longer.
But the outcome would have been the same.
As in their previous collision, Kovalev started powerfully to build an early lead but was in the throes not only of being over-hauled but of exhaustion. Some of the barrage of body shots which drained him were marginal, at best, but it was the murderous right hook to the jaw before them that sent Kovalev staggering back towards inevitable defeat.
In reality, the referee’s hasty intervention deprived Ward of his due stoppage. It was a transAtlantic replica of the night in Manchester when Carl Froch was pulled off George Groves in their first fight a few moments too soon. It left the public unfulfilled and prevented a world champion from finishing his job in style.
Yet Ward, for so long the world’s supreme super-middleweight, had vowed to dispel the controversy which had surrounded his taking of Kovalev’s WBA, IBF and WBo lightheavyweight titles. The world’s consummate boxer did that.