Sergey Kovalev, for the first few rounds, looked like he had improved on some of the mistakes he claimed he made seven months ago against Andre Ward in their first fight. Kovalev was landing harder and better shots on Ward, even though he didn't score a knockdown. The Russian, who said after the first fight he overtrained and ran out of gas, started to fade again in Round 6.
As the two continued to slug it out, Kovalev was noticeably slowing down. Both fighters were swinging hard and wild, boxing in the phone booth and in the clinch.