Well, he cleaned out 168 in the super 6, he's very hard to hit cleanly, and he's undefeated. A bit hard to describe, Ward's a bit of a chameleon, changing up tactics from fight to fight. His ring IQ is very high, and he's in his prime. Did I mention he's quick with his hands and feet too. Pound for pound is a term I do not like as it never factors in age and when the fights happened. Also, favors those who move up in weight classes.
1. He looks great in the ring via eye test. Very skilful and a very smart fighter. 2. He DOMINATED elite opposition like Froch, Kessler, Abraham, Dawson etc. 3. Olympic Gold Medalist with arguably the GOAT run in the Olympics considering his opposition. If you don't rate Andre Ward, don't rate any fighter today.
Well, in that regard, there's a lot of fighters lacking. By this logic. Ward - Kessler 2009, Bika 2010, Abraham 2011, Froch 2011, Dawson (drained) 2012 Lomachenko - Salido (loss) 2014, Martinez 2016 Kovalev - Agnew 2014, Hopkins (50 yrs) 2014, Pascal x2 2015 Crawford - Postol 2016
Ward realized he needed to fight very defensively after the Boone fight. Imagine nearly getting stopped so early in your career. This didn't happen to Roy Jones, Floyd, Canelo, GGG, Tyson, Bhop, Oscar, etc. Perhaps this is why his fighting style is so bleh. Although he has looked better at 175. Let's see if he tries his MMA grappling with Kovalev
of course not. but i do think you have to be at least a bit feminine to get upset because someone calls a guy you like, ugly. undercover and all that.
Original post says it all....defeated EASILY the top 168 pounders in the world. But yes, that was years ago and in another division. He's squandered away his career with lawsuits. I agree that he shouldn't be P4P because his story is old. I also think even if Floyd came back today he shouldn't be P4P because of inactivity. His performance against Kovalev will define his career.
Well, that further confirms the fact that Ward's being rated on results that happened years ago. I don't there's anything wrong with the "logic" that says a fighter needs to have done something outstanding quite recently to be rated as an outstanding fighter. And by oustanding I mean just moderately outstanding, like defeated/outclassed some semi-legitimate contenders in their weight class. But, yeah, I'm considering the possibility that boxing is full of poor fighters these days.
Ward is a master of the ring, he knows all the tricks of the trades. This is a guy who's never had power yet has won all the biggest fights. He never really got his just dues from the fans after the supersix. I agree he hasn't done a lot these past few years with the inactivity but he will have fought three times this year and has moved up to fight one of the most dangerous p4p fighters on the planet. If he wins then we need to talk about this man being the greatest of this generation. If he loses then all praise for Kovalev he just beat someone I rate very highly and there can be no more questions in my eyes about his resume. Just pumped to see this fight wish this got the type of loves from the casual that may pac got. Fights like this is what boxing should be about the best fighting the best.