It's now plainly clear Ward could move up to 175 and take anything he wants. Dawson was the top 175lbr. We can also assume based on the fact Froch did better vs Ward & already beat Pascal that he could do well too. Froch also narrowly lost (though I think beat) Kessler. A sharp Dirrel could also cause many headaches although if Pascal ambushed him Dirrell could **** himself and try for another oscar. Groves no doubt could make some waves too even at this stage of his career. I think there's quite a few 168 fighters now looking at 175 with a different perspective...........ask yourself if you were a top 168lbr would you stay and fight Ward or move up?....
I don't see why any of the top SMWs would move up to 175. What's there to achieve? Hopkins is ancient and a win over him means little at this point. Cloud is trash, Shumenov a fraud, which leaves basically only Campillo who is a legit opponent but with too little punching power. He cannot outbox Ward because nobody can. Unless you can't bang, I wouldn't even bother stepping in the ring with Andre.
Ward can go undefeated for the rest of his career. He has a choke hold on the SMW division the way the Klits have been dominating the HW class. Dirrell might be the last man standing but I doubt he beats Ward.
So he is going to move up to 175 and fight the best lhw now? Ward is skilled but his record is very overrated as of now. This fight with Dawson meant, nothing.
B-Hops would get beat up in the same fashion he was often accustomed to beating others up. If Hopkins was a bit younger I'd find this far more interesting, despite knowing it's unrivaled potential to get ugly, but Hopkins would not have any answers for Ward. Then again, I think Hopkins would be able to fare a bit better than Froch and especially Dawson did.
I wouldn't say that Campillo can't outbox Ward. His win (screw the judges) over Cloud was a masterpiece of defense, movement, and counter-punching. Plus, Ward's new "aggressive" style is pretty clunky. Kudos to him for trying to be more crowd-friendly, but he's now leaving himself open to a good counterpuncher. If Dawson hadn't been asleep the whole fight, I think Ward could have been in trouble. Then again, Ward will likely continue to improve on the inside, and Campillo is getting old.
