Better Career: Ward or Canelo

It's an interesting one. Canelo's record has more names on it, but Ward has better names on his record. You could argue that Kessler, Froch, Kovalev etc (Solid elite fighters) is better than Canelo's longer resume of lesser, world level fighters. Canelo only really has one win where you go 'Okay this guy is very good' and that's the second fight against GGG. Other than that, nothing stands out. And even that fight was razor thin, which you could score a draw or edge to GGG by one.

Ward has stronger wins. Beating Froch the way he did is a real stand-out performance. We can't really say that Canelo has one of those wins. I would say Ward has had a slightly better career, despite him fighting less world level opponents than Canelo.

 

Tough ....one....

 

I’d say Canelo. But both have asterisks next to their corruption linked names.

 

Canelo the only man who can match loaded dice Ward for having the deck stacked in his favour every single time out.

 

I feel Ward had the bigger task facing a bigger man and bigger puncher in Kovalev, the way came back from the knockdown the first bout with Kov was great, Canelo was more negative in his first bout with GGG than Ward was v Kov and I don`t feel nelo beat GGG in the rematch.

 

Ward P4P was second only to Mayweather at his peak, he was almost as skilled a very savvy fighter.

 

Ward for me. I've just never really been convinced that Alvarez is particularly special, albeit I admire his attitude and willingness to face the best.

I can forgive the Mayweather loss, because it was against one of the best to ever lace 'em up (although I still think that a fighter who is supposedly in or on the cusp of the 'great' category should have put up a better fight than Canelo did). Who knows, if Ward had a comparable, bona fide legend in or around his weights during his career, such as a peak Roy, he might have been on the receiving end of a similar clowning.

But I've always felt that, to some extent, people see what they want to see with Canelo. Almost from the off there was a pressure and expectation that he could be the next big thing, the PPV cash cow, the potential crossover star ala Oscar or Floyd. But he's just nowhere near as good as them, hence why he's always needed at least one outrageously biased card in his favour to scrape through against Trout, Lara, Golovkin etc. How he's 3-0-1 against those guys is as much a testament to his marketability and fanbase as it is to his talent.

I appreciate that Ward's first win against Kovalev in particular wasn't to everyone's taste, but when faced with his other best opponents (at the very least comparable to Canelo's) such as Kessler, Froch and Dawson, he's put on dominant, exemplary performances in which he's displayed a big gulf in class in his favour.

Still, Canelo has time on his side. Right now I'd definitely favour Ward but Alvarez's greatest moments might yet be ahead of him.

 

Right now Ward but if Canelo continues to win then he can overtake Ward. You also have to remember Canelo has had at least two contraversial decisions whereas Ward has only had one.

 

Ward and clearly.

1) Ward won 100% of his fight (officially), Canelo won 94 % of his fights (officially)

2) It can be argued that Ward lost 1 fight in his career - the first fight to Kovalev. He had just 1 (one) fight that could have gone another way. Canelo lost every minute of every round to Floyd and had 7 (SEVEN!!!) fights that could have been scored to his opponents if they were red headed Mexicans - GGG 1 & 2, Lara, Vasquez,Trout, Juarez, Villanueva.

3) Canelo never came close to stopping elite opponent (Floyd, GGG, Cotto, Lara, even Trout) unless you count lass-jawed past-prime Amir Khan, who went two divisions up in weight an elite middleweight. Ward, on the other hand, stopped Kovalev and prime Chad Dawson.

 

I've read a report somewhere where they analyzed the careers of all top fighters including Floyd, Pac, Klitschko etc and Ward was ranked #1 in terms of the quality of the opposition he faced and how close they were to their prime when he faced them. So it's not just Canelo, arguably his career is better than anyone you can think of over the last few decades.

 

Close but no significant number of people thought Boone won.

 

Ward is the more skilled fighter, and is ahead at the moment career-wise. Canelo is far from done though, but in my view Ward is the more special talent.

 

Ward he has done more but Canelo is still young and isn't finished yet so he could pass Ward.