im not gonna say andre ward isnt a quaility fighter because he clearly is. but is there any thruth in the fact that people are baseing his supposed genius on one convinsing (if contraversial) victory against kessler. lie the khan maidana fight it can be argued that the ref hel;ped him in that fight. why is this guy in some peoples top 10pfp after on good win? manny steward in an intervuiew on on the ropes said he doesnt think ward is that great. he said something like a very good solid all round fighter!
I am a bit neutral on Ward, but what I see is a pretty young guy who is very disciplined in the ring and crafty for his level of experience. I think he is going to have a good career ahead of him and the only guys to give him trouble are going to be real athletic type, but for the most part he should have a good career ahead of him should he continue to dedicate himself as much as he has so far. He certainly has a winner's mentality, for sure, no room for second place, based on what I've seen.
You know, that is a good analysis right there. I am not a big Ward fan, but the guy is adaptable, smart and tough. He has good boxing skills but can also brawl despite having average power at best. He seems to have a gameplan for each fight and sticks to it. He dominated Kessler from start to finish, like no one else had. He bullied Green, a bigger and more powerful guy, and out gritted Bika, a rough and tumble character who would have used his mauling style to wear down lesser opponents. He may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the guy has a winning mentality, as you said. He wil get beat someday, I think he lacks the power to dominate forever. And he seems not to shy away from a fight, so eventually he will run into that guy who just outmuscles and outhustles him and beats him.
I don't think he's the second coming, as most of his fans do. The guy is highly skilled yes, is tough and will bust a guy up on the inside, but he isn't great, he's dirty. He's had home cooking and he's still green. He beat an undisiplined Kessler, that's it. He has more to prove. I think Froch and Bute could beat him. And of course he's no where near the great Joe C. People need to wait before they crown him...
He in some people top 10 p4p because of a wide lack of the p4p talent from US soil at the higher weight classes .... so some people take him in place of Hopkins, Taylor, Pavlik, Williams, Dawson ... guys who were in top 10 recently but have failed. Simply US folks can have their own new hero ... for me completely undeserving p4p top 10 status, both Bute and Froch are better at Ward's own weight class, but they ain't Americans.
I thought Ward had it in him from the beginning, before he fought Kessler. I just thought it would take him more time to mature. I think the super6 has accelerated that process. It was risky but it turned out for the best.
Very good post. The hype jobs have been exposed terribly in the last 5 years or so - Pavlik Lacy Jacobs Dirrell Tarver Williams Dawson Taylor
