Andre Ward's desperation is clear

Ward is boring eh? any coach in this country would love to be his trainer the guy is class but you the great Paulie think he's boring lol

 

Being a knowledgeable boxing man, you can probably appreciate the skill and ability of him. Most casuals don't like his style, they'd much rather watch a Froch Kessler slug fest. I think I would too. Still massively respect Ward though.

 

Wards the sort of fighter you need to be in a certain mood to watch, if I want to watch a tear up or all out war, Ward would be at the bottom of the list, If you are in a relaxed mood and want to look for technical skill and craft then Ward would be a perfect choice.

 

I love watching Ward, definitely one of my favourite fighters. The Bika fight was pretty messy with an awful lot of mauling going on but aside from that I can't think of a bout of his that I haven't enjoyed. He's so complete I don't get why people seem to loathe watching him so much.

Each to his/her own I guess.

Pretty much.

I mean, ideally I'd like Dirrell to actually fight first against a somewhat meaningful opponent but I think he warrants a rematch at some point. Frankly as long as you haven't broken rules to some heinous degree, regardless of the manner in which you've gone about your work during the fight, if you deserved to get the decision in your favour and that didn't happen you deserve an opportunity to put things right.

In my opinion, anyways.

 

I suspect it's because he takes his opponents' strengths away and it makes the bouts somewhat lacking in drama. He dominates without being destructive and, for some fans, I guess they prefer the blood n' guts to the skill on display. ****, it's the only reason I can think of why Arturo Gatti is in the HoF.

Hopefully the Dawson bout is the start of Ward going for the stoppage more.

 

Yeah, I get that impression too. 'Tis a shame but I often forget that I'm probably in the minority when it comes to what people prefer to see in fights. Back and forth "wars" are great and all but I generally prefer to see an excellent technical display most of the time. The boring lad that I am.:yep

Even still, despite hardly being FOTY contenders I think a decent proportion of his fights are relatively entertaining. I wouldn't consider his Froch, Kessler, Dawson, Abraham etc performances to be boring ones anyways.

A lot of Gatti's entry is based on sentimentality as far as I can see, what with his passing being not too long ago and many of the BWAA people having followed his career pretty closely. Ideally, a place in any sports-related hall of fame would be reserved for true, elite "greats". I suppose at some point you're going to have a shortage of those and it then becomes a bit of a popularity contest.

 

Inappropriate use of the word "schooled"

 

Who?

 

Gatti = 4x FOTY.

That's a big part of why he's in the HOF. Andre Ward, for all his technical ability, has not one FOTY entry. Same goes for Pernell Whitaker, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Bernard Hopkins. Selling fights and selling boxing is about more than skill.

 

So, Ward is acting like your typical fighter when given the horrific gift of regular public Internet access to bicker with boxing fans? Man, that's unforgivable.

 

Ward is desperate for dollars, that's what he's desperate for.

 

I know he's not perfect but I'm shocked at the amount of stick Ward gets from fans. Find it a little bit embarrassing really. He's a quality, quality fighter who, if he gets over his shoulder injury(Pavlik fight is off btw), could become a great.

 

I love watching Ward fight but can appreciate why people think he's boring, technically he's great. He smothers people and beats up on them without looking like stopping them. That can be boring if you don't like that particular style. He's stuck at the minute though and despite beating Froch handilly he currently needs Froch more than Froch needs him. Strange how things work out sometimes.

 

This is a good post.

With Ward as a fighter I have found that you need to look at the little things, the things like what he does to nullify opponents work or the positioning of his feet, it's little things like this that separates him.