If Ward beats Kovalev and finishes his career undefeated...

Hatton was coming off a loss to Collzao and being dragged up out of his best fighting weight. He also had to fight not only Floyd but his tag team partner Joe "Firm but Corrupt" Cortez

Froch Kessler and Kovalev would be two fantastic wins and a phenominal one, puting him above Floyd for me too

 

he is better than floyd if he beat kov in prime, unlike floyd pu$$y win vs grandpa pacquiao

 

Floyd has it due to sheer consistency and the number of all time greats or greats of his era that are on his resume (Pacquiao, De La Hoya, Mosley, Marquez, Corralles). Ward simply doesn't have that kind of resume at the moment (with his best wins coming against Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler and Chad Dawson), which is partly due to the fact that he doesn't campaign in a very visible weight class (SMW and LHW don't command the type of audience that the LW, WW and HW divisions have traditionally enjoyed). Guys like Kessler, Froch, Abraham, and Dawson were highly-respected opponents in their own right at the time thought Ward challenged them, but they didn't have the broad appeal or recognition that nearly all of Floyd's opponents enjoyed.

In addition, Ward's biggest hurdle (as most everyone has already stated) has been his inactivity. I can't count the number of times I've had to assume that he had retired over the last five or six years. In terms of his skill set, I would argue that Ward is the most complete active fighter in boxing. He's got everything that is needed to be an all time great, but he hasn't had the opposition, charisma or consistency to cash in on it.

 

Stop lying to posters alt.

 

That's a fair point, and it's about the only argument that Ward has in has favor. For me, it's hard to know just how past their prime those opponents were versus how ordinary Floyd was able to make them look with his skill set. Either way, there's no debating that Dawson, Froch, Kessler and Abraham were absolutely in their primes when Ward faced them and none of those fighters really gave him any serious trouble. His run in the Super Six tournament was an incredible feat to witness.

 

well, that aint gonna happen

 

It all depends on who he fights afterwards.

 

Not even close IMO.

 

If Ward beats Kovalev you can talk about HOF/ATG status perhaps in general, Mayweather IS a top 20 ATG.

 

I would be real tempted to put Ward ahead if he beats Kovalev

 

It depends what he does afterwards.

He could dominate at LHW for a good few years and possibly move up to CW.

He also wants to emulate Roy and have a fight at HW against the right opponent.

 

They arguably were.

 

Kovalev is no more a monster than Corrales or Canelo was when they fought Mayweather, or Pac for that matter. If Ward beats Kovalev and I think that he will, it will be a step in the right direction but he will not surpass Mayweather. If he cleans out the LHW division and then can get GGG scary ass at 168, I will give him the equal nod but he will never have the impact on boxing that Mayweather has had.

 

Sure there is. There's no prime Dawson at 168, that was a corpse. Abraham had just taken 2 heavy defeats, including a shutout to Froch's jab. Started seeing a psychologist, talked about retiring. Kessler had that convincing loss to Calzaghe, got hurt vs Sartison, sat out with promotional issues, came back looking like **** vs some Paraguayan. Froch was prime FWIW, though didn't look like a world beater or future HOFer at the time, see his struggle vs old and drained Glen Johnson