Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward was billed as boxing’s biggest and most important matchup of 2016. Their November 19th main event was closely contested, very competitive, and after Ward was dropped in the 2nd round, he rallied to get a 114-113 (x3) unanimous decision to unseat Kovalev as boxing’s #1 light heavyweight.
Yahoo’s Kevin Iole reported on Monday that Kovalev vs. Ward drew in 160,000 buys on HBO pay-per-view. Neither man had ever previously headlined a PPV in their respective careers, so there were some question marks as to how well Kovalev and (more specifically) Ward would fare.