LAS VEGAS — Andre Ward delivered. He got stung by punches early. He was down early, on all fours and only canvas looking back up into his dazed eye. But he got up. He adjusted. And, in the end, he did what he has done for just about as long as anybody can recall.
Ward-Kovalev undercard finally ends with a dull draw
A forgettable undercard finally came to an end with a result that summed up everything that came before it.
Gvozdyk punishes Chilemba for a TKO victory
Ukrainian light-heavyweight Oleksandr Gvozdyk calls himself The Nail. It’s an appropriate nickname. At least, it was on HBO’s pay-per-view undercard before the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward main event.
Stevens retains minor middleweight title with a unanimous decision
Curtis Stevens retained his role as a fringe middleweight contender with a 96-92, 98-90, 96-92 decision over James De La Rosa for a minor 160-pound title in the first pay-per-view bout on a card featuring Kovalev and Ward Saturday.
Claressa Shields wins pro debut
There’s more than Olympic gold in Claressa Shields’ possession. There some pro power, too. Shields, a two-time gold medalist from Flint, Mich. used it repeatedly in a head-rocking debut for a unanimous decision over Franchon Crews, a Baltimore super-middleweight who also was making her debut on the Kovalev-Ward undercard.
A sparse crowd booed. Only Tyler McCreary cheered. The Toledo featherweight had good reason to. McCreary (12-0, 6 KOs) won a controversial majority decision over Vincent Jennings (5-3-1, 4 KOs) of Grand Rapids, Mich., in a dreary eight-rounder in the fourth bout on the pay-per-view card featuring Kovalev-Ward
Toledo junior-welterweight Sonny Frederickson (15-0, 9 KOs) employed quicker hands and superior reach to score a unanimous decision over Gabriel Duluc (11-2, 2 KOs), a Boston fighter who was left with nasty over his left eye midway through an eight-rounder on the non-televised portion of the Kovalev-Ward card.
Rock rock solid in winning one-sided decision
Philadelphia heavyweight Darmani Rock stayed unbeaten (6-0, 4 KOs) with a one-sided decision — a four-round shutout on all three scorecards — over Brice Ritani-Coe of San Pedro, Calif., (4-5-1, 3 KOs) in the last bout before HBO’s pay-per-view telecast of the Kovalev-Ward card.
Russian middleweight scores Kovalev-like stoppage
Russian middleweight Bakhraim Murtazaliev (7-0, 5 KOs) came into the ring wearing trunks with Sergey Kovalev’s last name on the belt line. It didn’t take long for the Robert Garcia-trained Murtazaliev to do what the guy with the familiar name does in the second bout on Kovalev-Ward card. He crushed Bortirsher Obidov (6-1-1, 2 KOs), knocking down the Uzbekistan fighter three times in the second for a stoppage at 2:52 of the round.
First Bell: Kovalev-Ward card underway with middleweights in opening bout
In an empty NHL arena seven hours before the main event, a couple of unknown middleweights opened a card that would end later Saturday night with Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward.
Meiirim Nursulatnov and Henry Beckford stayed upright. Nobody got iced. But heavy-handed Nursulatnov (1-0) of Kazakhstan emerged with an easy victory in his pro debut, winning a unanimous decision with a shutout on all three scorecards over Beckford (5-5, 1 KO) of Hempstead, N.Y
