Ward was a fiddler, great with dirty infighting and staying out of distance with mind numbing tactics. He is NOT in the class of James ****ing Toney, who fought cleanly toe-to-toe without being hit or clinching.
He wasn't as pleasing to the eye, but he was better at 168 imo. I can't see him being as embarrassed aagainst anyone as Toney was against Jones. And no weight drain excuses. Whether or not he was doesn't matter. A large part of an athlete's quality is preparing well. If you don't in the biggest moments you have no excuses.
If this is about who aesthetically looked best at 168, it's Toney hands down. But this isn't figure skating.
It's not strictly eye test. Some people like crap but have an ability to win such as Froch. It's just about winnability. Who does better against a field of opponents is what I think about. For me Toney, on fire was better than Ward, although I've never seriously considered the alternative. But Toney before he hit LHW was a beautiful man.
Maybe, not sure, though. Would he beat difficult guys like Kessler and Froch as easily as Ward did? Don't think he ever did, anyhow. But even if you're right that Toney at his very best was better than Ward at his very best that isn't a clincher for me. It's about the consistency of the performances. Ward was always good in there. Being good enough to get the win on every night is better than winning impressively most of the time but losing now and then because a dip in performance imo. I feel that talent is overrated and professionalism underrated on this forum.
Maybe. One can only speculate. What I think we can say with more authority is that he never did that to anyone of Froch's quality.
What, punch to pieces? Try Nunn, McCallum (last round), Barkley, Littles and Prince Charles - all significantly better quality fighters than Froch. Carl led with his nose.
Updated rankings after a day of deliberation. My top 4 are now something I'm going to hone in on with more scrutiny. Rank First Last 1 Roy Jones Jr 2 James Toney 3 Andre Ward 4 Joe Calzaghe 5 Carl Froch 6 Mikel Kessler 7 Nigel Benn 8 Chris Eubank 9 Sven Ottke 10 Frankie Liles
If you think Nunn and McCallum didn't "lay a glove on Toney" you and I have been watching very different fights. And how was Barkley, Littles and Prince "significantly better quality fighters than Froch"? What world class fighters did Littles and Prince ever beat? And what 37-year old former LW did Froch ever lose to? Who ever KO'd him in the first round? Froch probably beat more top ranked guys than those three combined.
Sven Ottke lost more fights than he won, in reality. Froch and Kessler are simply not in the same stratosphere in terms of talent as Nunn, Hearns, McClellan, McCallum, Watson or Littles. Graciano Rocchigiani was better than Kessler. Without question. Lindell Holmes looked great against Tate. Frank Tate was a far more accomplished boxer than Froch or Kessler. Olympic gold etc.