Andre Ward confirms status as P4P king with ferocious stoppage of Sergey Kovalev in Las Vegas rematch… but Russian calls foul again

Jun 18, 2017

ANDRE WARD stopped Sergey Kovalev in the eighth round to retain the WBO, WBA and IBF light heavyweight belts – but the Russian again cried foul.

Pound-for-pound king Ward won the straps in a contentious decision in November of last year.

The American, 33, vowed he would leave no doubt this time at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

And he delivered on his promise with a series of ferocious body shots that left Kovalev slumped on the ropes.

But yet again the match was marred in controversy as Kovalev claimed he was hit by a low blow.

Ward – who has 16 knockouts from 32 bouts – said: “He’s a great fighter, not a lot of people are going to beat him.

“But when you are facing a great fighter you have to raise your game to the next level.

“I hurt him with a head shot and I just had to get the right shot in to finish him.”

Kovalev had the upper hand in the early rounds but Ward managed to rally later on for the win.

Referee Tony Weeks stopped the fight with 31 seconds of the eighth round to go with Kovalev kneeling down.

Kovalev said: “It was a low blow, again another one,” .

“We are boxers. I could still continue. Why stop the fight?”

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