Andre Ward

The talk of him being dirty fighter started after Mikke Kessler fight, when He was coming in very recklessly with his head and caused the cut's that led to fight being stopped.
I don't believe head-butts were ever a problem for him again, but He was involved in many physical fights, against Bike and Edwin Rodriguez in particular, from what I recall - since He was utilising clinches for defence and his inside-game was also not really clean, with a lot of wrestling or holding and hitting.
Another controversial moment came in the rematch against Kovalev, when He was allowed to get away with series of low blows which ended the fight.

Many very good/great fighters utlise certain tactics that are on the fringe of legality or technically illegall, but practically mostly tolerated or difficult to pick up for referee. Ward also had his bag of tricks and was often rough in the ring, but I always thought the complains were a bit overexaggerated.

 

He was a great fighter. Just barely worse than Jones, but a lot uglier to watch. He sat out for two or three prime years with a promotional issue and retired relatively young. He’s a first ballot hof fighter but probably could’ve been a top 20 ATG if he really went for it.

 

I dispute the end of the Kovalev fight being dirty. I saw him kill Kovalev to the body, followed by Kovalev bending over 90 degrees and prompting the ref (Weeks?) to jump in. While he was bent over and Weeks was already jumping in, he drilled him low but it’s because he was bent over and the fight was already getting stopped.

 

A rough master-level counterpuncher who was not afraid to use head strikes, elbow frames, shoulder bumps, holding and hitting. Probably the thriftiest inside fighter I've seen, with a huge move repertoire including old school 1950s style forearm blocking and crazy punch selection/accuracy. Knew exactly when to clinch up. Tons of Hopkins influence on his game. Great jab, super steady, super high ring IQ with lots of physical strength. Unified 2 division champ, never lost. Fights at his pace, wins rounds, and gradually breaks fighters down more and more as it plays out.

I used to think he was hitting Kovalev low in the rematch but it was legit. Either way, they both put in a great effort for those fights. Won the Super 6 tournament, which is a hell of an accomplishment. Fought safe for a long time, some of his best wins are kind of meh such as a super weight drained Chad Dawson or the first Kovalev fight which had some controversy. Gets a lot of credit for clearly beating Froch who went on to dominate others at 168. Ultimately left a lot of food on the plate but did a lot as well and never looked bad in there. Hard to say how he would fare in a more active, competitive time, but during a fair renaissance at 168 he came out on top and with distance.

 

I don't believe it's quite accurate.
Not sure if We can call it dirty, I doubt that He was hitting Kovalev low intentionally at that moment, while having him in trouble - but last couple punches were clearly low and only after that referee stepped in.
It was a wrong call. You can't win a fight on foul. Kovalev should've been given time to recover and Ward should've arguably been deducted a point.

I actually think referee hurt Ward there moreso than Kovalev, as He robbed Andre from opportunity to get a clear and decisive win. I don't think Kovalev had much chance of getting back into the fight at that point.

 

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The final replay is around 37:00. To me, it looks like he folds Kovalev over with two legal shots which is the reason for the stoppage, but the third one might be low. There’s a great case to be made that Kovalev was finished and looking for a way out. He had cried wolf on a belt shot earlier in the round.

 

He's similar to Fury. Incredible fighter, but a bit dirty. Those were definitely low blows against Kovalev IMO.

 

The shot that first hurt Kovalev was a low blow, and even though he was hurt against the ropes, he was still intelligently defending until the final low blow. Those last 3 punches were definitely low blows and intentional ones at that.

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Go to 4:30

 

This was always my contention, but you get shouted down around here. People still angry about Kessler and maybe Froch as well, I reckon. He was dirtier than some, less than others. Gonna try and find a post I made years ago that describes why he's one of my favorite

 

Not watching that vid based on the absurd title of it.

 

Cleaner than John Ruiz, Holyfield, and Hopkins.

 

Yep. A lot ado about nothing there. There were one or two borderline low blows before that as well, but nothing out of the ordinary.

He was reckless with his head against Kessler, though. But I'd say he was a rough fighter rather than dirty. He could both box and fight which made him so hard to beat.

 

Very crafty, skilled and mentally strong fighter that lost his best years to injury and contractual issues. He still looked prime when he retired, but obviously felt that he couldn't put in the effort as he should anymore. Smart inside and outside the ring.

Too bad that he felt that he couldn't continue anymore, since fights with Bivol and Beterbiev would have been very interesting.

 

I think that's mostly a thing in General, where most are nutters anyway. Here in Classic I think your and my view on it are more of the prevailing one.