Andre Ward And The Light Heavyweight Gauntlet Of Pain And Horror That Lies Before Him

"When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer."

Is a famous quote attributed to Plutarch referencing Alexander The Great running out of kingdoms to conquer.

Well let me see if I can coin a new one.

"When Andre saw the breadth of his withering domain, he wept for there was one more world to conquer."


I must commend Andre Ward for doing something that others would rightfully be afraid to attempt, he's venturing into a world thus far as a pro unknown to him, and in that world lies many potential pitfalls that may greatly hamper his goal of fulfilling his hoped for destiny of becoming an all time great. In fact that world it may very well shatter his legacy into a million pieces, and chin along with it. It's brave as hell what he's doing and it may end backfiring and blowing up in his face big time. This is not a thread about GGG so don't bring it up, GGG has a goal to unify the Middleweight Division, which has many up and coming talents for him to feast on. Ward on the other hand has already cleaned out the division in the Super Six Tournament over a few years basically wiping the entire division, and he along with Froch leaving the desolate wasteland that it remains today. He had no one left to conquer, no real threat to speak of, you may want to hype this one or that one, but be real no one at SMW offer anything in the way of a real threat to his supremacy. So unlike GGG, he had nowhere left but to go up, since he's far too big to go down. He tested the waters by draining its then Champion to a corpse and then schooling and stopping him, because of the catchweight involved, it doesn't ultimately amount to much as a win, but don't blame Andre, Dawson didn't have to accept those terms did he?


Well after his years of inactivity sitting on the sidelines, the Light Heavyweight division underwent somewhat of a major transmogrification, not the kind where a caterpillar turns into a butterfly but more like that of a man turning into a vicious snarling werewolf in a Hollywood movie. This isn't your older brothers Light Heavyweight division anymore. This is not the division inhabited by slicksters like Dawson or Hopkins or Jones or Hill or Tarver, or moderate hitting but tough outs like Johnson or Pascal, its basically turned into an army of Dariusz Michalczewski's only harder hitting and more well rounded in the skill department. Now that's a terrifying thought. And to be perfectly honest, I see Ward having an incredibly hard time making it past Barrera unscathed and if can accomplish that impressive feat, then who will he face in the interim before the third fight on his new contract before Kovalev. What awaits him are all dangerous fights, especially for a guy who doesn't have the power to keep them off of him.


Sure all of his hardcore fanboys and devotees can endlessly repeat their mantra of skills pay the bills over and over again, ad nauseam, but it doesn't change the reality that many of Ward's skills lie in his ability to roughhouse and bully many of his opponents, many of whom may have had a decent punch, but lacked the physical strength to overwhelm him, unfortunately for Ward, most of the guys at LHW do. And here's another catch, not only do many of them have more power and happen to hit way harder than his previous opponents, but they aren't to shabby in the skill department either. Can they match him skill for skill probably not, but the intangibles they possess more than make up for it.

So let's take a closer look at the grotesque can of worms the Son Of God has open up and jump into head first shall we. These are the Monster that Lie In Wait.:yikes I'll put them in order based on their threat level.


Sergey Kovalev-Honestly I don't how there's any way in hell Ward can topple Kovalev, not only does he have fight changing power, he has life changing power, he hits so hard that you forget that you're in a boxing match because the fear of your livelihood being taken from you, tends to have the ability overwhelm your mind and renders you completely helpless and unable to process thoughts accurately. Fear is an overriding emotion, and when Kovalev touches opponents fear completely overtakes and overwhelms them, he hits so hard Lionell Thompson said he felt as if his soul was leaving his body every time he was touched by The Krusher. Goddamn:yikes Now add to that Kovalev's mastery of range and distance, efficient use of the jab, his one twos, his use of feints, his defense, his excellent footwork. Kovalev is a walking nightmare Ward will wish he can wake up from, and he will when Kovalev knocks him out cold and wakes up the next morning.

Artur Beterbiev-The Beast Of Dagestan may have taken a few steps back skillwise since turning pro, and become overly reliant on his immense power, well when you have a gift like that, why not take the easy way out by taking full advantage of it. And while many seem to think Beterbiev an easy task to overcome due to the perception of him being somewhat limited barbarian. Well they're insane, he's perhaps one of the most physically strong fighters in the business, so Ward's roughhousing will not work on him, Ward's counters will most likely have no effect. The reality is the blunt force trauma otherwise known as Artur could probably toss Ward from one end of the ring to the other and do with him want he wants. Which is most likely brutally KO him.

Oleksandr Gvozdyk-The best guy in the division you've never heard of, which I've actively been trying to change for the last year and a half. The Nail Of Kharkov is the total package, and that package to all Light Heavyweights should be a frightful one. He's physically huge for the division standing at 6 foot 3. But what's scarier is that his skill level might be higher than Kovalev's, powerwise its too soon to tell, but so far it seems pretty impressive. He's like a hybrid of Kovalev and Lomachenko, he has an excellent jab, brilliant footwork, maybe the best in the division. He can infight, he can wrestle, he can break rhythm, he's an excellent combination puncher, and his use of angles is immaculate. A potential nightmare for Ward, maybe even for Kovalev. He's capable of beating many fighters in the Top 10 right now.

Adonis Stevenson-Let's not forget about him, personally I can't stand him and I think the last 3 beat him rather handily, but I don't think Ward could. Even Stevenson's fragile ass mandible can stand up to Ward's powder puff punches. Ward would definitely have a very good chance here if he can take away his one and only weapon, but sometimes that's easier said than done. Yes Adonis is somewhat of a one trick pony, but damn that straight left of his is one a hell of a trick. A kind of vicious fight ending one.

Sullivan Barrera-Fundamentally an incredibly sound fighter, he rarely makes mistakes, his jab is solid as is his combination punching, punch selection, underrated footwork, speed and body work. Don't be fooled because he lacks the in ring dynamism of the aforementioned fighters. Because he has all the tools to get the job done, his KO power is more impressive than it first appears as well. Barrera has 17 wins with only 12 KO's but if you look closer at his record, the majority of his KO wins come after the 6th round. He's grinds his opponents down. The fights that he didn't win by KO were 4 and 6 rounders. Barrera is as solid as they come. Ward is in for a brutal night with the Hurricane Of Guantanamo.

Dmitry Bivol-Dmitry appears to be something of a prodigy, he is the most inexperienced of the fighters I've listed yet he has a skillset that equals and at times surpasses theirs. He's a solid all around fighter, he's very good at cutting off the ring, his combination punching, his defense, he's heavy handed, his jab, his hooks, I see virtually nothing wrong with this kid. He's capable of beating a slew of top 20 fighters at only 6 fights in. He'll be a beast in a year maybe even right now.

Vyacheslav Shabranskyy-One of the more rudimentary of the Eastern European fighters I've listed, but what he lacks in skill, he makes up for with sheer size. Standing at a towering 6'3 1/2 Slava can easily overpower and pummel most of his opponents into submission. As was evidence by his 10 round near shutout of Yunieski Gonzalez. Yuni was never even in the fight, just as Gonzalez was able to use his size to his advantage with Pascal, Slava did the same thing to him. Oh and he punches really hard and throws a bomb with every shot.

Andrzej Fonfara-Could Ward beat Fonfara, perhaps the Fonfara of a few years ago that was being shutout by Campillo, but to say Fonfara hasn't improve since then you'd have to be deluding yourself. He's a volume punching nightmare for almost anyone to have to deal with, he can literally stand there and throw over 150 punches per round, straight lefts, straight rights, uppercuts, left hooks, right hooks, overhands, they never stop coming. The new and vastly improved Fonfara would definitely have a chance.

Egor Mekhontsev-While Egor has been somewhat of a disappointment as a pro, we haven't seen too many of his actual matches since they've been off TV. He may be a lot better at this point. That being said, he's excellent at cutting off the ring, he's good at infighting, his jab is solid, his stamina is fine, and he's physically very strong and has the ability to rough up an opponent and force them to do what he wants them to.

Nathan Cleverly-One shouldn't write off Clev, he looked excellent for the first 6 rounds against Fonfara in a 2015 FOTY contender, completely revitalized and back to his old self again, the one that does a really impressive Calzaghe impersonation. Had he just focus on his boxing and not the bravado and trying to prove his chin to all the post KO4Clev doubters, he very well may have beaten Fonfara. Clev is back and he means business.

 

Juergen Braehmer-The Old German War Horse has more than enough tricks up his sleeve to still to give Ward a fairly hard time, he's one of the most well rounded LHW's in the division and his power seems to have increased substantially over the last few years. While he'll most likely be steamrolled by the power punching young guns, he can handily beat those without the power to trouble him.

Eleider Alvarez-While I don't consider myself a big fan, he's a very solid fighter, he doesn't really do anything wrong, only he lacks power at the top level to compete with the abovementioned opponents. His jab and countering ability gives him a chance to make it close, and if he doesn't fear what's coming back at him, he can walk Ward down and outwork him.

Marcus Browne-Personally I don't think he has the skills to hang with Ward, but he's strong, tall, rangy and hits hard so he shouldn't be written off easily either. I don't think he has much of a chance against the monsters of the division, but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong with Sir. Marcus.

Add to that list many other fringe players all of whom are either undefeated or have a lost once or twice such as David Benavidez, Radivoje Kalajdzic, Umar Salamov, Thomas Williams Jr., Dominic Boesel, Samuel Clarkson, Sean Monaghan, Yunieski Gonzalez, Steven Lovett, Joe Smith Jr., Isaac Chilemba, even Jean Pascal while many of them are also rans waiting to be handed their first or second loss, they're all decent and are fairly big punchers, not many guys in this division will be a walk in the park. While I highly doubt any of those fighters could beat him, a couple of these guys may even be able to give him flashbacks of Bika and Boone, and those are just the average ones.


Andre Ward may have bitten off far more than he can chew by venturing into this division whose inhabitant are big vicious and merciless as hell, and are all on a mission to prove they're the next big thing, and most of them have the goods to pull it off. So buckle up all you SOG fans you're in for a very bumpy ride, this might even get unpleasant to watch for many of you, because I really don't think a lot of you fully comprehend what he's stepped into. He better hope the lord is truly on his side and he is the Son Of God, because he's going to need all the help he can get. Big time.

Andre Ward has just entered his own personal version of Revelations, the Trials And Tribulations will be in abundance, and he will have to walk through the metaphorical fires of Hades with brimstone searing the flesh from his feet and I don't see any possible scenario in which he can emerge from his descent into Abadon unscathed. All that awaits him is a gauntlet of pain, misery and horror. Best Of Luck Andre :thumbsup because you're gonna need it. I have a feeling this is going to really suck for you and your fans.:deal

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I said Stevenson was the most fragile of the fighters I listed, if Ward can take away the left he can win definitely. But that'll be harder than it looks.