In front of 10,592, the fight ended with controversy in the 8th round with a victory for Ward. A right hand from Ward had Kovalev in trouble, which was followed by several body shots, including a low blow. Tony Weeks stopped the fight, with Kovalev sitting on the middle rope, visibly hurt from the strikes he was subjected to. At the time of stoppage, two judges had Ward ahead 67–66, whilst the third judge had it 68–65 in favor of Kovalev. CompuBox stats showed that Ward landed 80 of 238 punches (34%) whilst Kovalev landed more punches with 95 of his 407 thrown (23%).