'07 Bute and '10 Ward against Bika - vids

I'm taking all this with a grain of 'styles make fights', but chose to post my thoughts regardless.

Ward's handspeed is only (very) effective when he masters range. When he doesn't give a fukk, which was 60-70% in the Bika fight, it gets sloppy on the inside.

In the first rounds of both fights, Bika threw the odd haymaker. For Bute, each one was a distinct opportunity to duck and counter, or shake the legs off by using lateral movement. For Ward, each one was used to close the distance and lean in on Bika whether using the head or an elbow. In fact, with less than a min left in the 1st round, Bika complains to the ref about an elbow.

In round 10 of Bute-Bika, Bute eats the odd jab but counters most of what Bika attemps. He's able to stick left hooks to Bika's body, which he often does coming up from ducking. In round 12 of Ward-Bika, after Bika rocks him with THREE decent rights on the INSIDE, he SMILES at back him and transfers weight to his head by leaning onto Bika left EYE SOCKET, and Bika gets Kessler-blind for a sec at just under 1 min left in the fight.

"What a motherless mother****er", thinks Bika.

One thing I noticed generally speaking: reaches are similar for all three, except Bute looked considerably taller vs Bika than Ward did. And Bute is 6'2", Ward 6'1".

Ward spent a great amount of time in the pocket clinching, shoving the odd elbow, unleashing powerful rights as soon as the break was ordered by the ref. That same amount of time was spent by Bute displaying creative footwork to get away from range and reload. By the time Ward had landed a right and a left in the clinch, Bute had re-established his stance and had jabbed, ducked, landed a big left.

BOTTOM LINE: I think Bute fights better off of the backfoot than Ward does coming forward. Bute's most developed shots & abilities are effective when he's given an opportunity to counter, and no way in hell is he the aggressor if they end up fighting each other. Kessler's aggressiveness was the perfect matchup for Ward's handspeed. I think Bute masters range in this one and times Ward on a consistent basis for a wide UD or late stoppage.

Thoughts? :bbb

Bute-Bika R1 to R3
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRDJA9pjvY[/ame]

Ward-Bika R1
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG565m6EfmA&feature=related[/ame]

Ward-Bika R2
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPjDYEEKouY&feature=related[/ame]

Bute-Bika R10
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfmFNhqZRI0&feature=related[/ame]

Ward-Bika R12
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xN-icKEntk&feature=related[/ame]

 

Cheers. Pretty sure Froch will go the the final, I just don't know how tough it will be for him to go through old Glen. Froch's left eye might be partially closed up at the end of the fight due to gorilla clubs. Ward will walk over AA without a major problem, but his chin might get tested in the process. We'll see if he is wise enough to batter AA from the outside, rather than closing it in like he did against Bika. AA could find a way to unload abrahammers the way Ward pounded on Bika after most clinches were broken, who knows.

Bute in the meantime will face Kessler at the end of the summer, and Showtime opponent #3 in Oct/Nov 2011. Top 5, worst case top 10 opposition.

Bute-Ward in March 2012. At MSG. :smoke

 

True. Yeah, he could use the segment where he stings Ward with 3, arguably 4 right hands to the side of the head, for a promo video. Like a scorpion that's tilted to its side.

The only advantage the Bika who fought Bute has over the Bika who fought Ward is stamina. His arms looked very heavy in the last 2-3 rounds of the Ward fight.

 

Another awesome contribution by MW. The hole he digs himself gets deeper with every post. :happy

Hey, that's interesting. You're the first guy to bring up Ward focusing on AA's body. The few times Froch chose to rock AA with combinations, he almost always started with a solid jab or hook to the body. However his dinosaur reach sort of enabled him doing this from outside as AA was marching forward. If Ward works AA's body, it'll be interesting to see how he quickly gets out of mid range... he probably won't, using the clinch to rest after a given flurry or single hit (fast & big lead right hand comes to mind). But if he does, watch a frustrated AA try to connect with power shots as Ward leaps out of [inside] range.

By the sounds of what both fighters said in the past month, Kessler will be back before Dirrell. Could have the winner of Bute-Kessler (summer 2011) face Dirrell in a last eliminator late fall (Oct-Nov) to determine who will face the S6 winner first.

 

I think there are chances that we hear hints of KO/TKO talk from Ward at the pre-fight conference. His good friend Dirrell embarrassed AA, Froch dominated and frustrated him. It's the end for AA at 168, and we could see Ward try to hit a home run so the S6 final is that much promotable. And a Ward TKO often has his opponent backed up against the ropes taking shots all over the place, reckon he usually starts downstairs. So yeah, as much as Froch exposed AA for being horrible against a stiff jab + movement, Ward despite having both could choose to re-expose AA for having a horrible inside game.

It'll be interesting to see where the fight is held. MUST be in neutral territory, Showtime told Jean Bédard.