Whose resume is better, SOG's or Bud's? Ward boasts wins over: Sergey Kovalev x2 (controversial) Carl Froch Mikkel Kessler Arthur Abraham Sakio Bika Chad Dawson Allan Green Edison Miranda Edwin Rodriguez Sullivan Barrera Crawford boasts wins over: Errol Spence Shawn Porter Viktor Postol Israil Madrimov (controversial) Ricky Burns Yuriorkis Gamboa Jeff Horn Julius Indongo Egidijus Kavaliauskas Amir Khan
Crawford's victory over Madrimov was a close fight but not controversial unlike Kovalev. Bud in front for me.
In my opinion, even if you felt Ward didn’t deserve the win against Kovalev, Froch is a much better win than anyone one Buds resume at the weight/time his best wins were contested, and Kessler is probably at least as good as Buds best win… but also probably a bit better.
Both could have gone either way and I think the Eastern European won in both fights but I can understand how someone would score it for the American in either instance. I'd struggle to call either out and out robberies because of how close they were even though I think the wrong man won both times. I think a fair enough amount of people scored the fight either a draw or for Madrimov in order to justify calling the outcome controversial to some extent anyways.
Although Crawford was perhaps given a gift decision in the close fight against Madrimov, he's never been a recipient of a real robbery, like Ward-Kovalev I. Crawford won his first world title on the road. Ward refused to travel because he felt he needed dodgy home officials. He had the privilege of having all his fights in his home country during the Super Six, while everyone else had to travel. He was also permitted to skip a round, no one else was allowed to. Crawford hasn't needed to rely on illegal tactics and dishonest referees to permit it, like Ward against Kovalev (low blow TKO) and Kessler (multiple obviously deliberate head butts).
I am going to be contrarian and say Crawford. Not only was Kovalev I a robbery, but the way Kovalev fell apart after, they are essentially not that great of victories. Froch and Dawson are really the picks of that litter.