Now that the dust has settled a bit...my thoughts on "lowblowgate".

[j0zef]

That's the truth of the matter.^ We've seen hundreds of fights where the dominant fighter lands an accidental rabbit punch or low blow in the final mele. AJ did it in the Wlad fight. Those crying for Kovalev, where were you when AJ accidentally rabbit punched Wlad twice in the finishing combo? In both cases, the other guy was DONE.

I couldn't possibly DISAGREE more with this post.

First, let's stop equating rabbit punches to low blows. There is an amount of rabbit punching in every single fight. Floyd has been warned for it, so has Pac, and Tyson, and Ward, and Kovalev, and Golovkin, and Klitchko, and . Every single one of those guys has been warned for rabbit punching.
Very rarely do you have a fighter being accused of landing SIX low blows in 8 rounds.

Second, since you bring up AJ/Wlad - let's make it clear, AJ looked DONE after Wlad knocked him down. Every one of us thought that, as did Wlad. 'Looking done' means absolutely nothing. AJ looked WAYY more done than Kovalev did. There are hundreds of fights where one guy looked 'done' and either continued fighting or won the fight.

Third, no matter what you argue unless you're a complete fanboy, Kovalev DID get hit in the nuts at least one of those in the 8th round. He should have been given his legally allotted 5 minutes of recovery time. Otherwise it's bull****, without any excuses. Next time a guy hurts his opponent, he should just go punch him in the nuts because 'he was done' and rules no longer apply?
There's no excuse - he should have been given time to recover. If Ward proceeded to whoop his ass in the following 10 seconds or next 2 rounds, then that's what happens.

Fourth, you do NOT prematurely stop a fight on body shots. When one guy is out on his feet and is getting punched in the head, that's one thing. Body shots are not the same as head shots. If you get REALLY hurt to the body, you WILL drop. Whether you can get up or not is another question.

But there is no excuse for premature stoppage on body shots. If Ward started punching Kovalev to the head and Kov wasn't responding, then yeah, ref jumps in to stop. That stoppage was garbage. I hate Paulie, but he was 100% spot on in this one - it was one of the strangest stoppages he's ever seen.

[Boxfan83]

Big Kovalev fan and Ward hater. Ward was the one who was robbed. He was robbed of getting a clear victory. Dang shame too. Not a Ward fan but it's hard not to give him props for the beating he was putting on Kovalev.

good post man. As a non bias Ward fan I agree 100% I wish this win wasnt tainted by the way it ended. Kov was sucking wind from rd 3 and come rd 4 he looked finished.

[iamboxing]

That's the truth of the matter.^ We've seen hundreds of fights where the dominant fighter lands an accidental rabbit punch or low blow in the final mele. AJ did it in the Wlad fight. Those crying for Kovalev, where were you when AJ accidentally rabbit punched Wlad twice in the finishing combo? In both cases, the other guy was DONE.

There was a low blow earlier on in the fight. Once he knew Ward was going to get away with it he started to bend and cover his groin, making it look like he was hurt. People say Kovalev doesn't like being hit in the body. I think it's more of a case of not liking being hit low. Get hit in the groin and the after-effects can last for an hour and will have you backing off and being defensive, not to mention scared. Anyone would have taken a knee in such pain to avoid another pulverising low blow.

[Real King Kong]

I can't really disagree on any of this despite the apparent contradiction in claiming it was both a good and a bad stoppage simultaneously (all very Heisenbergian) ... unfortunately it does mean that there will be those who continue, with justification, although rather pointlessly, to contest the outcome. Myself I'm satisfied that the right guy won and that's good enough for me. It's been a fine ride on the Krusher train since the start of 2013 for me and I'm just hoping he's got a few more good fights left in him.

not my intention. It was up to weeks to make the call, since he was the one in the ring. A justification could be made either way.

[The Time]

I couldn't possibly DISAGREE more with this post.

First, let's stop equating rabbit punches to low blows. There is an amount of rabbit punching in every single fight. Floyd has been warned for it, so has Pac, and Tyson, and Ward, and Kovalev, and Golovkin, and Klitchko, and . Every single one of those guys has been warned for rabbit punching.
Very rarely do you have a fighter being accused of landing SIX low blows in 8 rounds.

Second, since you bring up AJ/Wlad - let's make it clear, AJ looked DONE after Wlad knocked him down. Every one of us thought that, as did Wlad. 'Looking done' means absolutely nothing. AJ looked WAYY more done than Kovalev did. There are hundreds of fights where one guy looked 'done' and either continued fighting or won the fight.

Third, no matter what you argue unless you're a complete fanboy, Kovalev DID get hit in the nuts at least one of those in the 8th round. He should have been given his legally allotted 5 minutes of recovery time. Otherwise it's bull****, without any excuses. Next time a guy hurts his opponent, he should just go punch him in the nuts because 'he was done' and rules no longer apply?
There's no excuse - he should have been given time to recover. If Ward proceeded to whoop his ass in the following 10 seconds or next 2 rounds, then that's what happens.

Fourth, you do NOT prematurely stop a fight on body shots. When one guy is out on his feet and is getting punched in the head, that's one thing. Body shots are not the same as head shots. If you get REALLY hurt to the body, you WILL drop. Whether you can get up or not is another question.

But there is no excuse for premature stoppage on body shots. If Ward started punching Kovalev to the head and Kov wasn't responding, then yeah, ref jumps in to stop. That stoppage was garbage. I hate Paulie, but he was 100% spot on in this one - it was one of the strangest stoppages he's ever seen.

Great post man. I echo your sentiments. Been making these points in different threads.

But in this post you elaborated and made those factual points clear and true. Good stuff.

[Vlad_]

I couldn't possibly DISAGREE more with this post.

First, let's stop equating rabbit punches to low blows. There is an amount of rabbit punching in every single fight. Floyd has been warned for it, so has Pac, and Tyson, and Ward, and Kovalev, and Golovkin, and Klitchko, and . Every single one of those guys has been warned for rabbit punching.
Very rarely do you have a fighter being accused of landing SIX low blows in 8 rounds.

Second, since you bring up AJ/Wlad - let's make it clear, AJ looked DONE after Wlad knocked him down. Every one of us thought that, as did Wlad. 'Looking done' means absolutely nothing. AJ looked WAYY more done than Kovalev did. There are hundreds of fights where one guy looked 'done' and either continued fighting or won the fight.

Third, no matter what you argue unless you're a complete fanboy, Kovalev DID get hit in the nuts at least one of those in the 8th round. He should have been given his legally allotted 5 minutes of recovery time. Otherwise it's bull****, without any excuses. Next time a guy hurts his opponent, he should just go punch him in the nuts because 'he was done' and rules no longer apply?
There's no excuse - he should have been given time to recover. If Ward proceeded to whoop his ass in the following 10 seconds or next 2 rounds, then that's what happens.

Fourth, you do NOT prematurely stop a fight on body shots. When one guy is out on his feet and is getting punched in the head, that's one thing. Body shots are not the same as head shots. If you get REALLY hurt to the body, you WILL drop. Whether you can get up or not is another question.

But there is no excuse for premature stoppage on body shots. If Ward started punching Kovalev to the head and Kov wasn't responding, then yeah, ref jumps in to stop. That stoppage was garbage. I hate Paulie, but he was 100% spot on in this one - it was one of the strangest stoppages he's ever seen.

Very well written.

[HarvardBlue]

The fight was stopped on a lowblow, period. I see people saying..."kovalev was already finished, it didn't matter"..."there was only one lowblow" etc. The rules don't get abandoned once a fighter is hurt. There were clear low shots at the end of the fight, and weeks stopped it...not a good look. Regardless of surrounding circumstances, the rules should be enforced.

This is the only thing I disagree with you on. It's more semantics than anything else. You're right, there was a low blow right before the ref stopped it. The problem is the referee never acknowledged the low blow. He didn't tell Ward to keep up his punches (at that point) nor did he stop the action to check on Kovalev. We can only assume that he either didn't see the low blow or he chose to "ignore" it. The final verdict on whether you think this was a BS stoppage depends on which scenario you believe. Based on Week's actions from before, you can assume he saw the low blow, but like he did before, he chose to let the action continue. Either way, you're now left with visibly hurt fighter who is no longer defending himself. Whether Weeks thought the punch was clean or he chose to let action continue he has only one option. Stop the fight to either save Kovalev from further damage or stop it because he believed Kovalev conceded the fight when he stopped defending himself. He can't give a count because there is no standing 8 count. All this is based on him not calling the low blow. This maybe bad refereeing but that's the reason for this outcome. I'm sure the commission will eventually side with the referee.

[Real King Kong]

This is the only thing I disagree with you on. It's more semantics than anything else. You're right, there was a low blow right before the ref stopped it. The problem is the referee never acknowledged the low blow. He didn't tell Ward to keep up his punches (at that point) nor did he stop the action to check on Kovalev. We can only assume that he either didn't see the low blow or he chose to "ignore" it. The final verdict on whether you think this was a BS stoppage depends on which scenario you believe. Based on Week's actions from before, you can assume he saw the low blow, but like he did before, he chose to let the action continue. Either way, you're now left with visibly hurt fighter who is no longer defending himself. Whether Weeks thought the punch was clean or he chose to let action continue he has only one option. Stop the fight to either save Kovalev from further damage or stop it because he believed Kovalev conceded the fight when he stopped defending himself. He can't give a count because there is no standing 8 count. All this is based on him not calling the low blow. This maybe bad refereeing but that's the reason for this outcome. I'm sure the commission will eventually side with the referee.

At the end of the day, he's the guy who's in the ring and he's the guy getting paid to make the call. He's got a vantage point we don't and has to take everything into consideration. That said, after seeing the replay, i believe he made a bad call..not the worst I've seen. Just looking at kovalev's body and hand position...there wasn't much place else for those shots to go but low.