In anticipation of this Saturday’s big rematch between light heavyweight champion Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev, HBO has released the full first fight for your viewing pleasure (or angst if you hated how it turned out).
However you felt about the first official decision, almost everyone can agree that we’re in for another nip-and-tuck battle between two of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport.
In their first meeting, Kovalev used his skill and power to drop Ward early in the fight, but Ward was able to make some adjustments to prevent that from being a recurring problem from that point forward. In the end, Ward came on strong in the second half of the fight which was enough for him to earn a hotly debated unanimous decision by three scores of 114-113.
Kovalev was bitterly disappointed in the decision, as were many of the fans who strongly believed he won the fight, but he’ll have his opportunity this weekend to right that perceived wrong.
In the meantime, let’s take a look back at their first encounter...