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For 12 monotonous rounds, light heavyweight contender Andre Ward toyed with the painfully slow and overmatched Alexander Brand en route to a shutout decision on Saturday night in a fight every bit the overwhelming mismatch most expected -- but at least it set up one of the most significant and fascinating fights in boxing.Ward, fighting before a hometown crowd of 8,653 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, won every second of the fight in a 120-108 rout on all three scorecards.It was the final step to a long-awaited showdown with unified light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev, whom he will meet Nov. 19 on HBO PPV, probably at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, in a fight that has been signed for months. However, Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) and Ward (30-0, 15 KO) had to successfully navigate interim bouts to seal the deal.In a Russian homecoming defense on July 11, Kovalev, 33, did his part as he retained his 175-pound world title for the eighth time. He scored a seventh-round knockdown and rolled to a one-sided unanimous decision against top-10 contender Isaac Chilemba.And then Ward, 32, the former super middleweight world champion in his second fight since making the move to 175 pounds, took apart Brand, who was as big of an underdog as has ever been seen. According to Westgate Las Vegas Superbook, Ward was a minus-10,000 favorite, meaning somebody would have to bet $10,000 on Ward to win just $100.The fighters purses also made it clear who was supposed to win. Ward made $850,000, and Brand made a measly $30,000, probably the lowest for an HBO-televised main event ever.Ward had his way with Brand, who got the fight only after at least three others turned it down. Ward poked him with hard jabs throughout the fight, confused him when he switched to southpaw in the fifth round and hurt him with right hands to the body.Brand (25-2, 19 KOs), in the meantime, did virtually nothing other than back up, grab, hold and look for a way to survive for 12 rounds.One of Wards stinging jabs opened a cut on Brands left eyelid in the seventh round. But before and after the cut Brand never showed any urgency. Ward, 32, at least appeared to be going for a knockout in the later rounds, but Brand, 39, a former amateur standout from Colombia, has a reputation for having an excellent chin.We knew this guy was going to be really, really hard to knock out. Hes a veteran, said Ward, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist who was boxing on the day that the 2016 Olympic tournament began in Rio de Janeiro. People got to realize that when a guy with experience doesnt want to get knocked out, its hard, and hes throwing punches from crazy angles and has got nothing to lose. So I tried to press it. Didnt get it. But its good to get the rounds.According to CompuBox punch statistics, Ward landed ?190 of 490 blows (39 percent), and Brand landed only 45 of 285 (16 percent). Brand never had a round in which he landed double-digit punches, and he landed only two in the second and fourth rounds and just one of 20 punches in the 11th round.When the fight was over, Ward and Kovalev, who had watched at ringside, shook hands in the ring and formally announced their fight in an HBO interview with Max Kellerman.Im excited. Im looking forward to it, Ward said. I want to be the light heavyweight champion of the world. I had to get past this step. He had to get past his step. Ill see you in November.Said Kovalev when asked about the fight: Of course, Im ready. Hes ready. Im ready, too. I want to say lets do this Nov. 19.Ward, who was reluctant to speak about the Kovalev fight despite being asked about it constantly going into his tuneup match with Brand, showed immense respect for his next opponent.You got to respect Sergey for the way hes gotten to where hes got, Ward said. He hasnt had soft touches. He wasnt protected. And he wasnt really pushed by the media. Hes a guy who should get more credit than he has. The winner of the fight could possibly be pound-for-pound [No. 1].With Kovalev and Ward already top-five stalwarts on virtually every pound-for-pound list, many believe the winner of their toss-up showdown will earn recognition as the best fighter in the world, one of the reasons so many have been looking forward to it. The same could not be said for Ward-Brand. Air Max 97 Have a Nike Day Blue . -- James Young couldnt wait to apply those tweaks to his jump shot, and the first one he made against UT Arlington told him it could be a good night. Air Max 97 Womens Clearance . Capitals head coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin was injured in the first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and clarified it was not a head injury. http://www.outletairmax97.com/nike-air-max-97-just-do-it-black-total-orange-white-at8437-001.html . Detroit and Boston are deadlocked, 1-1, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be forgiven if he was caught rationalizing instead of dissecting how his club could blow a 5-1 lead late in Game 2. New Air Max 97 2019 . PETERSBURG, Fla. Cheap Air Max 97 Mens . During the athletes parade, the 23-strong Ukrainian team was represented by a lone flagbearer in an apparent protest at the presence of Russian troops in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. The Hungaroring may not have changed a great deal during the past 30 years but Hungary itself is a very different place. There was a certain amount of trepidation on both sides in 1986 as F1 ventured into an Eastern Bloc country for the first time and Hungary braced itself to receive this glitzy moving monument to meritocracy and western self-indulgence. Talk about coming at each other from opposite ends of the political and social spectrum.The need for a visa backed up rumours of massive queues at Budapest airport -- assuming you could find a flight with anyone other than Malév, the national airline. With the first Hungarian Grand Prix being back-to-back with Austria, we decided to fly to Vienna, hire a decent car (another rumour -- which turned out to be correct -- suggested the range of hire vehicles at Budapest might be better suited to the London to Brighton vintage run), cross the border and use this car for the return trip west to the ?sterreichring.The plan seemed to be working well until we hit a massive queue at the Hungarian border. Over an hour later, our papers stamped, we feared a late arrival might jeopardise our hotel booking. Best make a phone call. Easier said than done.In the absence of payphones, we were directed to a seedy room where a telephonist informed us that a call to Budapest, no more than a couple of hours away, was not possible. Even though we were trying to connect with the countrys capital city, the rules said calls could not be made to anywhere more than 15 kms distant. Apparently this was how you kept potentially threatening communication and insurgency at bay. Welcome to Hungary.In fact, such a poor initial impression would not be representative of a humble country bending over backwards to accommodate this brash circus marching into town. It was just that we had to adapt as much as the locals.Money could not be exchanged before arrival -- the better for Hungary to control the rate at official bureaux in the city. That was the theory. We quickly discovered the American Dollar was king and a black market was in full swing.Being perfectly capable of carrying our own bags, we wondered why the porter in this modest establishment insisted on helping. In a scene from a B-rate spy movie, he furtively looked up and down the corridor before slipping into the bedroom and asking if we needed Forints at a favourable rate. He then came close -- and Im not exaggerating -- to hurriedly conducting the transaction in the cupboard lest anyone should be watching. Having acquired the currency, the next thing was to spend it. Again, easier said than done.Beneath exteriors blackenned by noxious fumes from two-stroke engines, you could sense a majestic city fighting to maintain its colossal dignity.dddddddddddd The streets were completely devoid of the glaring neon signs directing or tempting us today. Shops that actually had windows looked like post-war Britain when rationing was high, supplies low and choice a luxury. One window proudly displayed a single giant box of Daz soap powder and very little else that was recognisable as something you might need.Restaurants (except one or two at the high end, very expensive and therefore very F1) were unmarked and gloomy. No one spoke English; the menu -- a tatty sheet of paper -- was unintelligible. We ate a form of stew. I think. The wine was unspeakable. With such limited cuisine, you will not be surprised to learn that the opening of the first McDonalds two years later required a major police presence to control the customers. We happily joined a queue stretching round the block. A Big Mac never tasted so good.On a similar theme in 1986, our rental Opel Kadett from Austria felt like a Rolls Royce compared to the assortment of machinery found chugging along the cobbled streets. The Trabant (known derisively as an Ashtray) was the most popular, albeit at the bottom of a not very distinguished list of personal transport manufactured in the East. Driving along the motorway towards the track, we noticed with admiration and amazement that one enterprising Trabant owner had fitted the luxury of soft-top. As we got closer and peered through the belching smoke screen, we discovered it was the actual roof that had become detached fore and aft and was billowing in the breeze.There was nothing shoddy about the track and facilities, the Hungaroring playing a more than adequate host to fussy F1 folk. With 200,000 spectators turning up on race day (the majority arriving by bus), traffic was a nightmare. Unless you had an official escort. Attaching ourselves to one fast-moving convoy, we saw the scary power of the police as locals almost flung themselves off the road at the first hint of officialdom. And if they failed to see the demand for right of way, an outriders boot left a heavy impression not only in the Trabants bodywork but also in the mind of its terrified driver.The mood and methods of authority are different now, Budapest having slowly emerged in all its glory as a truly cosmopolitan city. Thirty years ago, we wondered if we would ever go back. Today, F1 would be deeply disappointed if it did not. ' ' '