Andre Ward vs Paul Smith

Just below Tyson/Buster Douglas. I do think Smith has a slim chance but clearly it's got to be early. He doesn't stand a chance if the fight goes past six rounds as is Ward's style.

 

it would be a ridiculous upset.

i just hope smith goes out and puts it all on the line. hes never going to win a decision even if he miraculously manages to land more punches.

if he truly wants to win he has to just walk him down and put it on him. take 2 to land 1, try and break him inside. needs to rough him up, not worry about points deductions and make it nasty so he can land a punch that ends it.

even if he does that he still almost certainly wont win its just he definitely will not win if he tries to be clever and work in spells.

 

Cant see anyway smith wins tbh unless rust, lack of interest and aging have caught up with ward in a big big way

 

I think the best he can hope for is that he gives a good account of himself.

 

Unless Ward has become busted like Martinez, with two lame knees, I can't see how Smith can upset him. Again, he needs to be ultra aggressive and try and lay some leather on him. Hope to get off a wonder punch or something.

More likely is a wide UD for Ward.

 

Ward should stop him really and he's no KO merchant.

 

Biggest upset by a British fighter in history

 

^ Pretty much.

 

I give Smith virtually no chance but I would actually pay for a red button option to watch Froch's face if Smith knocked Ward out.

It would be amazing

 

I'd love to see Smigga do the biz, but i don't see any way he can win this fight short of Ward being DQ'd.

As for being an upset, the boxing public and press are notoriously fickle, they'd make the excuse that Ward had been inactive/injured for the last two years.

I honestly don't see the fight going beyond the middle rounds. Ward isn't the biggest puncher, but he's very strong physically, and is very very accurate with his shots.

Sorry Paul, but i see a Ward KO/TKO around the middle rounds.

 

Ward wanted the fight because Smith will give him rounds, exactly what he needs after so long out. Ward UD

 

Biggest upset in British boxing history even bigger than Lloyd Honeyghan beating Don Curry

 

I'd place it above Tyson vs Douglas - that was least somewhat explicable. Buster had known advantages - physical size and good skills. He was good prospect turned underachiever. He had fallen out of love with the game and down the rankings but the intrinsic abilities, which happened to match Tyson's weaknesses remained. He then suffered personal tragedies before the fight that spurred him on. He caught a Tyson who was lost in *****s and drugs and had an incompetent corner (endswell improvised from a condom full of icecubes). The huge odds against Douglas were more a product of Tyson's hype than a serious ****ysis of probabilities (they would not have occurred in the age of Betfair) - and from what I have heard they were largely apocryphal anyway (offered by one bookmaker in Vegas - like a headline grabbing Paddy Power offer).

In contrast, so far as I know, Ward is disciplined, and has not spent the last month stoned and being serviced by hookers. And, the opponent, Smith, is not a formerly brilliant prospect, but seems a known quantity: a doughty warrior but perhaps unlikely to develop / revert to a brilliant skill-set tailored to beat Ward.