There are so many fighters who were just as dirty as Ward, yet they never have a legion of detractors trying to discredit them every time they are brought up. How curious!
I really disliked Ward when he was fighting for the obvious reason that he was what you could describe as a dirty fighter. But he did what he had to do to win, I’m not defending him in anyway way but he took risks by fouling, he rolled the dice and he got lucky with the lack of penalties he got. At the time when he was active I couldn’t stand him but since I have been watching his podcasts he is quite humble and kind of likeable. I don’t agree with his style or approach but it’s difficult to call it cheating, he has never tested positive for peds that is what real cheating looks like in boxing. Apparently he hasn’t been beaten since he was about 12 years old, that is insane. His whole game was to just make it as uncomfortable as possible for his opponent and at times it certainly crossed the line of deliberate fouling. But when you think of the times when you have called for a fighter to get inside and rough up their opponent, to clinch and smother their opponents work, to target a cut with the glove or something like that you are essentially saying that it’s okay to adopt those tactics. The game plan was to make the opponent feel like they were being cheated and that would ultimately make them lose focus on their fight strategy, it was successful and he took risks by doing it. He certainly deserves to get called out for it but I think it’s unfair that some fighters that have actually cheated and used performance enhancing drugs don’t get as much stick, fury for example has pretty much been forgiven for taking performance enhancing drugs and using his vast wealth to intimidate the BBBofC with a drawn out legal battle that would exceed their financial capabilities, and he also blackmailed a farmer to say that he had been selling him and hughie uncastratted wild boar which the farmer later was unable to live with the lies, this is elite level cheating and when you compare it to the rough tactics of Ward you have to say that it is cheating. Almost all boxers are guilty of misusing the clinch to get a break or an advantage by wearing down or tiring out the opponent, they do that at their own risk and while Wards repertoire is more wide ranging it is not really any different. I know it seems like I might be defending Ward but the truth is, I didn’t like his style and I don’t approve of it but he probably does deserve as much stick as he gets.
There are very few fighters as dirty as Ward who get held in the same high regard Ward does as some type of “ATG”. His dirty tactics deserve to be brought up.
Im not a Ward defender and I was not a fan of his when he fought I watched the Kessler fight recently as I started watching the super 6. There were no clashes of heads until round 8. By then ward was well ahead. The headbutt later, I think round 10 was bad but Kessler was beyond finished at that point. People act like Kessler was some victim from the start and would have won. He got dominated before any headbutt even occurred I was at the froch fight which he won handily with a broken hand and the judges were fairer to Froch at 115-113 which was way too close I did think he lost the first kovalev fight but I dont remember ward fouling
I watched him live in Oakland vs Alan Green. crowd was put to sleep then.. He’s a good boxer but it was obvious him going up in weight against bigger boxers was going to be a problem I watched some of his podcasts. He can milk that undefeated record for days though.
Uncomfortable to see this many posts negating the dirty tactics. It's what results from only considering ward and not his opponents and more general the sport of boxing. We have lots of corruption and cheating and whatnot, but that is why it is important (at least to me) to be clear and have an opinion about this. I liked briedis and was quite impressed with him until he blatantly elbowed glowacki to end the fight and just a moment later had no problem admitting it and being happy with it. I think warrington was a walking cheater with his headbutts. And andre ward was my first real bad impression of the sport. First the robbery (yes kovalev had 6 clear rounds without debate and a kd) and then the low blow ko. Doesn't matter what happened before in the fight... Ward is the Definition of home town advantage allowing him to do Things that his opponent can't. As serge also tirelessly explained. That is just not what a sport should be like and it is a black mark on the sport as much as on ward. Whoever does not see this does not want to see it.
I like his commentary, he seems a good guy and I tried to like him as a fighter but he was beige (aside from the fouling). He was good at everything in the ring without being outstanding at anything. He had zero WOW factor though. Hes definitely the most beatable looking undefeated fighter I’ve seen this century but credit where credit is due he never lost (officially).
I pretty much agree with this but I struggle with the being an acceptable level of cheating, such as holding and clinching for longer than you should when a fighter is hurt. It is not allowed and it is by the letter of the law cheating, but many accept this as part of the sport even though it is cheating. Cheating isn’t a scale of what is acceptable or what is worse, in this instance I’m only talking about fight tactics rather than performance enhancing drugs. The bottom line is that if you break or bend the rules you do so at your own risk, I can only think of one fighter that I don’t think I’ve seen cheat and that was Sergiy Vyacheslavovych Derevyanchenko. Ward definitely did cheat and use questionable tactics to gain an advantage but what fighter doesn’t, I think he doesn’t quite deserve the stick that he gets when drug cheats and their positive results are forgotten about if they keep up the pretence that they are innocent. That doesn’t sit right with me. For example the supposed low blow that Usyk took from Dubois was cheating in my book because even if you say it was low it definitely wasn’t in his bollocks like he played for he conned the referee and got away with it without any criticism.