Why Is Andre Ward Rated So Highly?

Damn I just looked up 2016 Grier, time is a cruel mistress.

 

Ward is 32. He has not been punished in any of his fights. I have seen no indication of a slippage. This is why I say he's in his prime

 

He's had a more injuries than fights, and looked a step slower vs both Brand and Barrera to me.

 

Weights, in this case, are normally wrong. Keep in mind the airbrushing, diet drugs, wardrobes, and CGI became a bit better past Grier's prime!

Boxers are always best rated on what the did in a past sense, until they are past their primes, which Ward is not.

 

His resume is one of the best in the sport plus he passes the eye test. Those with better records are either past prime and on the slide, or they didn't dominate their opponents the way that Ward did. That's why he's considered one of the best fighters on the planet despite only having four or five good wins. The bar is kind of low right now with nobody wanting to fight each other and four good wins is more than almost everybody else.

 

Age and Gravity are the enemies, magnified by bad diets, stress and substance abuse.

But it's not always that way. Christie Brinkley is incredibly well preserved.

 

Tell her about it!!

 

Winner of the super six, Gold medalist and has exceptional in-ring abilities and IQ. If you can't see what's impressive by yourself, then you're the one with issues.

As far as Calzaghe is concerned, the fact that his first step up came after 40 professional fights against someone with 20 fights says enough about that joke of a career. Oh, and he rolled on the canvas in tears of joy and disbelief for winning that fight too.

 

Shame Ward's fights are so boring and he can't sell tickets or get ratings on TV. He should be a superstar at this point.

 

If I knew Billy, maybe I would.

 

And because, and this is what annoys me the most..... Some people link fan friendly fighting with ability.

For years my friend would tell me how Pac was a much better fighter than Mayweather because hes hardly ever in a boring fight.

For me the fact that he was never in a boring fight didn't make him a good fighter at all!

Same with Ward i think. Not saying he is unbeatable, as no fighter is, but he is clearly a very talented fighter and is deffo p4p list worthy, until proven otherwise.

If he beats Kovalev can you really say he doesn't deserve to be in anyone's top 10 p4p?

 

Doesn't need it, boxing I.Q negates punching power. His shown that with Froch and Kessler already.

 

This makes for a great debate.

It depends what your criteria is and how you view things.

In my opinion, he's the best fighter in the world at the moment, although I haven't seen a lot of Gonzalez and Lomachenko.

I think he has the best skills, and as long as he's active, it doesn't matter to me that he hasn't had a top level win for a long time.

If Floyd was still around and he only fought once per year fighting Berto level opponents, he'd be my number 1, and I suspect that he'd be many other people's number 1 too.

 

He got beaten from pillar to post by Sakio Bika, and was lucky he had the California judges in his pocket to win a decision.

He then headbutted Mikkel Kessler to get a BS decision over him. He also beat Carl Froch by two points - his only great win.

He forced Chad Dawson to drain himself dead and then gloated over his dehydrated corpse.

His win over Arthur Abraham has been exposed as insignificant since then. Abraham was a B-level middleweight who moved up to 168 and lost his only аsset: power.

But look at the guys Ward ducked and you'll notice a pattern: Andre Dirrell, Lucian Bute, George Groves, James DeGale. It's clear that Andre Ward wants no part of anyone who has speed and slickness.

 

Ward hasn't done diddly squat in the past 5 years . How can he really be considered a viable opponent for Kovalev ?? People are living in the past/ If Ward does actually show up to fight Kovalev, which I doubt, he is likely to get seriously hurt