It's just a matter of time, but expect him to be one of the greatest. Froch cannot beat Andre Ward. Can anybody?
ATG material because he beat Froch's leftovers?? a guy who was exposed by Dirrell and never looked good since then? getting a little carried away there.
Wow He did what he was supposed to do tonight but it wasnt anywhere near great. I haven't a clue as to if Dirrel was really hurt in the Abraham fight. BUT if That Dirrel fought Ward he would have won. If not TKO he would have had Ward running like Mosely. Screw SS6 Lets make Bute Vs Ward and Froch DVs Dirrel 2 - Mega PPV material !!
He's good. A very determined fighter. But he's got a very, very long way to go before we can call him ATG bound. We don't know what the future holds.
I'm definitely not ready to put him in that category. He is good, though, and likely will be able to have a long and excellent reign. Froch might not test him. I think Bute might be a better match. Thinking of him against some of the all-time greats, though, I can't see it. Jones? No. Calzaghe? No. Toney? No. Benn or Eubanks? Can't see it. He's good, but not at that level. At least not yet.
He is def a great fighter. Who knows what he will become. If he keeps this up we might be calling Ward an atg one day.
There's a couple things I saw that give me a little hesitation with Ward today out of an otherwise very solid fight from him. One was that when Arthur was throwing the jab, he was having success with it when working his way in- a better fighter would've stuck to it more. Another is that Ward moved his head the same way when he dipped in, and it wasn't until the 12th that Arthur realized he could land the left hook to counter that as Andre went to the inside. Those are a couple of habits that a fighter could exploit on him, but the guy to beat him must be more effective in an ugly fight than Kessler was and a better, smarter boxer than Bika and Abraham were. It's not an easy combination to find, and when it takes tough combinations of attributes to take a fighter out, that's a sign that he's no less than damn good. Ward's a damn good fighter.
I love watching the dude fight. He's a technician, not afraid to get dirty, and there's often an element of chaos in his fights.