Main Events promoter Kathy Duva gives her immediate reaction to Andre Ward's close unanimous decision win over Sergey Kovalev. Check out some excerpts of what she had to say below.
"I knew all along this would be a close fight, but once I watched the first five or six rounds [Kovalev] was clearly dominating, Ward was backpedaling and actually looked afraid for a while there. When he knocked him down it was so emphatic..."
On a possible rematch:
"Absolutely, we have the right and we're calling for it, yes."
On if she believed home-country bias would play a role in the decision:
"No I really didn't because I don't think of Sergey as a Russian fighter. He's fought so much of his career here. In the last four year he's only had one fight in Russia. He's adopted this as his home and I'd hate to think that was in play here, I would hate to think it."
On if a 114-113 score in Kovalev's favor would've been a justifiable score:
"Yes. It's close. And when it's close like that I know you can't yell too loud...but it's just one of those fights where some of the rounds were so clear-cut. It wasn't the kind of fight where the rounds were tough to score unless you're a UFC judge and you were scoring points for the wrestling. The wrestling was abominable, it was abhorrent and the referee did nothing about it and I'm really upset about that...
"It was more wrestling than fighting, [Ward] could really have a great career in UFC."