In this media scrum with Sergey Kovalev and his promoter Kathy Duva, Duva was asked if any effort made to get at least one international judge on the panel for the rematch after Kovalev suggested home country bias in the first outing. Here's how Duva responded:
"In Nevada the rule is you go with what the commission says. I asked Ward's side, because I thought it would be best for everyone involved, that there would be no question, if we could go together to the commission and ask them to appoint some non-American judges. Ward said 'absolutely not'. In fact I'm told there was a comment made about 'well everyone hates Americans all over the rest of the world so I want American judges.' So I guess he figures that gives him an edge.
"Personally, in the United States, because every state has its own commission, it's like all different countries, I kinda saw Nevada as neutral ground actually. And maybe I was naive but we're gonna trust the commission isn't going to want there to be any controversy next time and it's up to them to decide how they want to handle it."