Before anyone starts throwing around the "Beterbiev was too strong for Ward to wrestle" narrative, show me one example of Beterbiev fighting on the inside. Ward would have mauled Beterbiev because the dude can't fight on the inside.
at LHW ward has proved he is more than adept, taking the top scalp elite there. Something Beefy perhaps has yet to prove. he can handle Beefy, but bear in mind Beefy is not the complete article yet, best judge him when hes finished.
I've always like Beterbiev in this one. Ward would have to fight the perfect fight to get the win. However Beterbiev needs to get active.
He knocked guys down or out with very short hooks when they tried to clinch/hold him, or when taking a step when breaking out of it. Last thing you should do against Beterbiev is trying to clinch, and that's why he's a nightmare matchup for a guy like Ward. Ward is the better boxer of the two, but head to head this goes to Beterbiev by KO imo.
Against Jeff Page Jr, whenever Jeff ended up on the inside, Beterbiev would basically just cover up(he did raise his left elbow at times which was a nice move). And the KD happened because Beterbiev was trying to press down on Page's neck while himself moving back in a straight line. Keeping the head down is the smart thing to do, but to put too much weight on it while yourself moving backwards is a stupid idea, as evident by what happened. And afterwards all Beterbiev did was throw massive(well placed) hooks. That is not really inside fighting. There is no craft to it. It´s just slugging. And now lets look at Alexander Johnson, who at times had an easy time tying Beterbiev up on the inside. Why? Because Beterbiev would resort to try and force his way out via punching. It doesn't work. You need to fight for positioning and space. This content is protected Just look at the fight. Beterbiev did absolutely nothing on the inside. He has no real craft when it comes to it. Just like he can't really cut off the ring and nor can he move his head. Callum Johnson is going to give Beterbiev massive headaches. And Callum is nothing special.
Beterbiev is massively overrated. Dude is as one dimensional as a paper titlist can be. Just has a **** ton of power and some good fundamentals.
He instantly breaks free and retaliates when he gets clinched or gets attacked on the inside, just the things Ward does and need against that level and power, and unlike say someone like Green you can't hold onto him because he's way too strong. I can also see a very short fight against Johnson (about 4 rounds)... We just seem to disagree about Beterbiev
Again, you seem to think that it's all about the physical strength and it's not. It's not about holding onto someone, it's about fighting for positioning and space. Just look at Ward-Froch. Ward did a lot of holding that night(which would be harder to do vs a stronger opponent) but whenever Froch broke free or Ward was unable to do what he wanted, Ward would be in perfect position to fight at close range. There were just sooo many instances where they would tie up on the inside, break free and Froch would eat leather because he was not ready to fight. Be it due to positioning or just lack of focus. Ffs, i have sparred plenty of guys much much bigger than me (happens often when you are a midget like me) and thus i have had to fight on the inside. And i never had any issues holding onto anyone's arm.(men multiple weight classes above me) What i could not do was push them back unless they had bad balance due to positioning. When someone backed me up into the corner, i would look to body up with them, tie up one of their arms, and sidestep out of the corner using them as leverage. It worked like a charm. No one could flail me around like a sack of potatoes.
Beterbiev is overrated. I remember when I was called crazy for suggesting that Stevenson would stop him, or that Dawson would give him trouble. Well, Deines was able to land on Beterbiev, and he's nowhere near as quick or skilled as Dawson, or as hard-hitting as Stevenson.
Usual posts if this is not U.S boxer. If paper champ is from U.S then no problems. Might even sit on 1 belt and beat bums in row, 0 attempts to unify belts for long years and everything with these paper champs for posters had been cool and fine. Beterbiev at least had unified 2 titles and vs undefeated champ from other boxing org. You need to mention here western champs who had been x years with 1 title and these for you aren't paper champs. Dunno, when he now looks aging, then it is time to discuss about him in forums. While Ward for me looks more skilled, 30-35 y.o Beterbiev had been too powerful and too large for him to beat up or maul. This Beterbiev version for me looks also too powerful for prime Kovalev to beat up.
The jab , the accuracy,the timing,the versality , the ability to fight at any range, mixing defense with ofense and vice versa i could go on and on at the end of the the overall skillset of Beterbiev would be too much for the crude one dimensional Ward.