Like Hillary, Kovalev wins but loses in the judges' 'electoral college'

"As much as I love boxing, I hate it. And as much as I hate it, I love it." -- Budd Schulberg

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Bad news for Vladimir Putin. Good news for his "favorite", President-elect Donald J. Trump.
We have boxing's version of the puzzling "electoral college", the decrepit system that denied Hillary Clinton the presidency despite besting Trump in the popular votes in the recent election.
We respect the judges' verdict, an identical 114-113 unanimous decision in favor of American Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs), but the night belonged to dethroned Russian world champion Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) in the battle for WBA, WBO, and IBF light heavyweight belts on Saturday night (November 19) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
With 84 percent KO in his ledger, the 33-year-old warrior, born in Kopeysk, Russia, should have prevented a "hometown" decision by finishing off the 32-year-old challenger from Oakland in the early rounds.

RESCUE

But orthodox Kovalev allowed Ward to be rescued by the judges when he failed to put him away for good after scoring a second round knockdown which was worth 55 electoral college votes in the presidential race.
But unlike Clinton who gamely accepted her upset defeat, the Russian KO artist could only complain: “It’s the wrong decision. I don’t want to say my opinion. The witnesses are here – they saw it. It’s my job. It was a fight of my life. I am disappointed in the judges’ decision. He got maybe a few rounds, I agree with that. I kept control. I lost maybe three rounds the whole fight."
He added: "Of course, I want a rematch and I will kick his ass. I want to show good boxing. I am against here it is the USA and all the judges were from the USA. He is a boxer. It’s a sport, don’t make it politics. It’s a sport and I won the fight!”

'NOT SURPRISED'

Ward, who earned my admiration when he blasted to smithereens the incredible Chad Dawson for the WBC and WBC super-middleweight crowns in 2012, believed he won the bout: “No, I was not surprised when I heard the decision, I don’t’ know where you got that from. I know it was a close fight – the crowd you can hear they thought I won…I have been a champ before I knew it was going to be a tough fight – it was the first time in my career I was dropped."
Ward added: "He did everything I expected him to do. He started to show up as I expected he started to fight like I expected. My coach did a great job…It’s hard for me to call myself great. At the end of the day I am a two-weight division champion. Of course, I would do a rematch. I am not going to negotiate a fight right now I will go home and relax and see what’s next.”

'Duterte hard to predict than Trump'

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Describing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as "an emotional person", the director of New York University Center for U.S.-China Relations considers the Filipino leader as "more difficult to predict" than US President-elect Donald J. Trump on the issue in the South China Sea.
"If it’s difficult to try to predict Mr. Trump, it’s even more difficult to predict Mr. Duterte.  So I really don’t want to be in the position of trying to predict how he would behave," David B. H. Denoon, also professor of politics and economics, told foreign journalists in a briefing for the 2016 presidential race hosted by the New York Foreign Press Center (NYFPC) at The Westin New York Grand Central, November 8.
Denoon said there are some people who think that Mr. Duterte "is clever and that he is essentially just trying to negotiate and play China against the United States, and that he thinks he can keep the United States as the Philippines’ most important ally while insulting the American President and saying a number of very rash things."  

MINISTRY

According to Denoon, "the foreign ministry in the Philippines has tried to back down from some of the things Mr. Duterte said in Beijing, when he said he wanted to break off the relationship with the U.S."
He added: "I don’t think we know what he’s going to do.  I think he’s very, very hard to predict.  I would say the Philippines would be an absolutely critical country for anyone who believed in the original concept that Secretary Clinton put forth in terms of rebalancing towards Asia.  Because if the Philippines turns out to be pro-China or hostile to the U.S., given its location close to Taiwan and given its location close to Malaysia and Indonesia, that would change the strategic balance." 
"The same thing is true of Malaysia, however.  Malaysia is much smaller, but if you look at its location, the eastern provinces of Malaysia are next to Indonesia and next to the Philippines.  If Malaysia becomes pro-China, then it’s going to have a dramatic effect within the region.  

DIRECTION

"The only country that has moved in the other direction and become more critical of China in the last few years is Indonesia, where the president has become extremely antagonistic to the Chinese role in Indonesian waters.  In fact, Indonesians are the only people in Asia who have sunk Chinese fishing boats and have captured Chinese civilians.
"So I would say the problem with trying to predict Duterte is that we don’t know whether he’s just bargaining or whether this is his true set of views.  But certainly the mainstream public in the Philippines is very positive towards the United States, and they’re all scratching their heads over what he’s trying to do."