Questionable judging lingers around Andre Ward’s victory against Sergey Kovalev

Andre Ward assessed the crowd before taking questions from the media after defeating Sergey Kovalev by unanimous decision Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in a thrilling light heavyweight battle.

“I see some sad faces,” Ward said. “I don’t know why.”

The sad faces were from Kovalev’s team and his promoter Kathy Duva, who voiced her displeasure with the officiating and judging.

But there were more perplexed faces than sad ones on press row. Many reporters scored the bout in favor of Kovalev, while only a handful agreed with the three judges, who all had it 114-113 for Ward. Some were just happy the sport finally got an exciting fight that could have gone either way.

HBO’s unofficial scorer Harold Lederman had Kovalev winning 116-111.

“Uh-oh, Harold has it for Kovalev. That means the judges are going the other way,” one reporter said before the scores were announced.

In boxing, it’s never certain how the judges are going to score a bout on any given night, and it’s rare when they all agree. On Saturday, judges John McKaie, Burt Clements and Glenn Trowbridge witnessed two fights: one dominated by Kovalev in the first six rounds and another controlled by Ward over the final six rounds.

McKaie and Trowbridge awarded rounds 7 through 12 to Ward, who recovered from a second-round knockdown by a Kovalev right hand.

“I knew this was going to be a close fight,” Ward said. “I didn’t expect this to be a blowout.

“We showed we could eat a big shot and get up. When he knocked me down, I honestly wasn’t hurt. I guess that’s why they call it a flash knockdown. I just looked up, I was on the canvas, and I smiled, and I said, ‘OK, now the fight starts.’ ”

Ward (31-0, 15 knockouts) had been nearly perfect throughout his career since Darnell Boone dropped him in 2005. Ward has picked apart his opponents with flawless defensive skills, but it was his body shots in the clinch that got him the victory against the bigger Russian. The Oakland, California, native also traded wild punches on multiple occasions with Kovalev.

The former U.S gold medalist minimized Kovalev’s power shots by holding the former champion often. It was rare when referee Robert Byrd broke the two apart.

“I slowly broke (Kovalev) down and I felt he was getting tired, and he obviously didn’t want to be on the inside,” Ward said. “I give credit to (trainer) Virgil Hunter for telling me I needed every single round.”

Ward won’t have much time to celebrate. Duva said she will exercise Kovalev’s rematch clause.

“We’re going to get them back in the ring as soon as we can and right this wrong,” Duva said. “We absolutely will have a rematch. We have 30 days to make that decision, but we already made it.”

Kovalev (30-1-1) was in good spirits after the bout. He didn’t agree with the judges, but was pleased that the fans received an exciting fight.

“I’m disappointed, but life is still great,” Kovalev said. “I’m happy that people told me the fight was interesting.”

Ward’s grand victory against a dominated opponent probably moved him to the top of the pound-for-pound rankings and punched his ticket into the Hall of Fame. He’s now a five-time champion in two weight classes with a signature victory.

“I would love for it to be a shutout and dominant on the scorecards, but we eked out a tough victory against a guy a lot of people thought was gonna knockout me. … We did what champions do.”

Contact Gilbert Manzano at gmanzano@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0492. Follow @gmanzano24 on Twitter.