Just watched Ward vs Bika...Ward was Impressive

Good thread. I more or less agree with your points, particularly two of them:
1) This group at Super Middleweight is a real, heavy duty class of fighters. As a whole, they could be placed in any Super Middleweight era in history and fight the top six guys and probably come out on top. It's an EXTREMELY tough group (obviously leaving Allan "Can't Perform" Green out of the discussion).

2) Ward is one of the best fighters I've seen come around in years. I believe him to be the future pound for pound number one and I think this fight with Bika, while I knew from the start that it would be hell for Ward, was a smart decision since Ward is such a performer and eats up challenges. Anyone expecting an easy fight or surprised by a tough one doesn't know boxing or just flat out doesn't know Bika. That guy's a rough operator and extremely strong.

 

:thumbsup

Ruiz was actually a more entertaining fighter.

 

Kessler was outboxed by Ward, but Kessler had been drugged in before that fight, that much is obvious from his eyes during the fight.

Kessler outboxed Froch despite being past prime.

Top 10 P4P rankings these days appear to be:

Ward
Guzman
Erislandy Lara
Gamboa
Mayweather
Pacman
Bute
Kessler (past prime)
Nkosinathi Joyi
Bika/Wlad

 

Bika's fight with Calzaghe was different. It was the first fight for Joe on HBO (after Lacy) and he thought he could walk through Bika and blast him away. It didn't happen in the first few rounds when Joe realised he was, in his words, a "tough gorilla" so settled down midway through the fight to box Bika. It was poor preparation from Calzaghe but he still walked away with a pretty comfortable points victory. There would be no excuses from Ward because there are many tapes of Bika's performances against Calzaghe, Bute as well as appearing on the Contender. Ward did what he had to do, I had suspicions that Bika would be wrong for him. Ugly fight, move on.

 

You can tell on tv if someone is injured or has a problem? Im sure it doesnt take much wrong with an eye to prevent competition, you dont need an eyepatch to prove it :roll: Ward smashed up kesslers face with his head, deliberate or not thats what happened. Ward often comes in low with his head, thats the way he fights or has done recently anyway.

Most people wouldnt be on wards back if not for the unbelieveable protection he gets at home for his fights, its well out of order, the guy fights with every possible advantage and then his fans are claiming he is a p4p top guy after 1 or 2 top level fights, amazing really, i dont think ive even seen so much hype around a fighter and on top of that all his fouling is passed off as versatile so you can add double standards to it too!