By Edward Chaykovsky

Veteran analyst Bob Sheridan saw Sergey Kovalev as the winner of last Saturday's fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Kovalev was stunned by Andre Ward, who survived a second round knockdown to win a twelve round unanimous decision to capture the Russian fighter's IBF, WBO, WBA light heavyweight world titles.

Sheridan had scored the fight 115-113 in favor of Kovalev. The three official judges had Ward winning by one point, 114-113. 

Sheridan felt Kovalev slowed down after three rounds, and saw Ward starting his rally with the fourth.

"The fourth round might have been a turning point and I think some of the judges gave the fourth round to Ward. Ward was down in the second round but it was one of those flash knockdowns, he wasn’t on queer street or anything like that, he had his wits about him. It wasn’t looking good for Ward after three, but after the fourth round, Ward did what great champions do, he started battling back. Ward started getting to the body of Kovalev. After the fourth round, Kovalev didn’t seem to go after him like he did in the first three rounds, it seemed like he slowed down a little bit," Sheridan told On The Ropes Boxing Radio. 

Sheridan saw it as a very close fight, with some very close rounds that were hard to score. He has no problem with Ward winning the decision by a point and finds that outcome very plausible.

"Because of the knockdown and the crowd reaction, people thought that Kovalev had won the fight, but not by much. When you have four very close rounds in the fight, this can lead to controversy. In spite of th fact that I had Kovalev winning by two points, I scored it 115-113, I have no qualms about the fact that Ward won by one point. I thought that Andre Ward showed remarkable grit in his ability to come back and I got no qualms about him getting the decision from the judges," Sheridan said.

Another veteran broadcast analyst was at ringside that night, Larry Merchant - who felt Ward's victory was a clear robbery. He saw Kovalev as a wide points winner and felt it was a "hometown" decision for the United States Olympic gold medal winner.

Sheridan disagrees with Merchant's position on the matter. He felt Merchant had a bad seat for the fight and didn't give Ward credit for his body punches.

"People don’t score the body punches and that’s where Ward did some really fine work on Kovalev. Larry Merchant wasn’t seated right at ringside where he usually is when he’s commenting on a fight. He was back a few rows and it’s very hard even when you’re back four rows to be able to judge a fight like the judges that are right on the apron because you can see a couple of things that you can’t see from a few rows back. The most important thing is the power of the punch when it lands to the body," Sheridan said.

"Larry, who I have a lot of respect for, and he and I have worked together many times, I just don’t agree. I don’t fault Larry, but I don’t think he had the perfect perch to watch and score on a very close fight. It was no highway robbery."