Boxing results, highlights: Andre Ward outpoints Sergey Kovalev for decision win

It may have come with a little controversy, but there's a new king of the light heavyweight division

By Robby Kalland

Nov 20, 2016 at 12:57 am ET • 2 min read

It wasn't pretty early on, but Andre Ward is your new unified light heavyweight champion after winning by unanimous decision (114-113 on all three cards) over Sergey Kovalev in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Kovalev led early on -- dropping Ward for the second time in his career in the second round -- to take a commanding lead on the cards, but Ward battled back to take control of the tempo and make it his style of fight.

What may have won Ward the fight was his consistent work to the body. Whenever he got the chance to get inside on the longer Kovalev, he would crack him with hooks to the body that seemed to take their toll on the champion late in the fight as he slowed down some. Ward then opened up with his attack upstairs; his most effective work coming with the left hook which popped Kovalev's head back on a number of occasions in the later rounds.

Despite the style of the fight shifting in Ward's favor late, Kovalev continued to fight well with his left jab and overhand right as his best punches. However, the body blows took some of the heat off of those punches and the powerful Russian never put Ward in real danger after those early rounds.

The fight lived up to its billing as the biggest fight of the year for the title of pound-for-pound king. Ward came out on top in an extremely tight decision that can be argued for both sides. The fight was a tremendous display from both fighters, who, despite the animosity between the two in the build up, hugged after the final bell in a knowing show of respect to one another.

Ward comes out victorious and remains undefeated at 31-0-0 and hands Kovalev his first loss, pushing him to 30-1-1. The fight was tremendous and deserved a winner, but it was also clear that it deserves a rematch in the future.

In his post-fight interview on HBO, Ward said he would absolutely be open to giving Kovalev a rematch, which is great to hear and hopefully will get done for 2017 because that was one of the fights of the year in boxing coming from two of the sport's biggest stars.

Winner	Loser	Decision
Andre Ward	Sergey Kovalev	Unanimous decision
Maurice Hooker	Darleys Perez	Split draw, Hooker retains title
Oleksandr Gvozdyk	Isaac Chilemba	8th-round TKO (corner stoppage)
Curtis Stevens	James De La Rosa	Unanimous decision