Ward needs to move to 175, a real weight division....

I think Ward kind of needs to do this. Shut up the haters and it'd be a big money fight to set up some other ones. HBO would hype the hell out of that fight and for good reason, it'd be a real interesting matchup.

 

I see your points but there will always be someone to fight if he keeps on winning at smw. Just look at lhw a year or so ago, people said it was dead. There is always some young gun that emerges. Ward shouldn't be desparate. I say the same for GGG at mw. Rule mw and move up when he feels comfortable. Chasing fights in otber divisions can derail careers. Pavlik and Dawson are two recent examples.

 

Ward would ox circles around Stevenson and win UD.

 

I'm glad you mentioned the business side of it.

From a business standpoint, Andre doesn't have to weight jump, but he will lose his ability to dictate terms if his ratings don't improve and the new guys continue to surpass him. It took one year for an entirely unknown fighter from Kazakhstan to pull in better ratings than a homegrown, Olympic Gold medalist with P4P credentials and a Super Six championship. GGG fighting a fringe top 10 contender pulled in more ratings than Ward-Dawson, which was built as a much bigger, more important fight and cost much more to stage.

I've got nothing against Andre, these are just the numbers. He's got to fight more often now that he's healthy, and he's got to do something to combat the image that he's not a risk-taker. That's not how I view him, but more and more fans do as time's going on.

Golovkin's HBO ratings (average, not peak):
vs Proksa (HBO debut): 685,000
vs Rosado: 813,000
vs Macklin: 1.1 million
vs Stevens: 1.4 million

Andre Ward HBO ratings
vs Dawson: 1.3 million
vs Rodriguez: 1.1 million

 

This is business as you say, no more money for Ward at 168. Might as well exercise that P4P status and fight in a different weight division.

Exactly.

Dawson was the dumbass. :conf

Quite possibly. Fun fight though, Stevenson has the stamina to blast punches for 12 rounds. Rare to see a 'fun fight' involving Ward.

 

Great post Rock.

 

Lol at the Ward bashing, tell me has he ever won a lucky decision in Oakland, did he not beat everyone clear and dominated them, Secondly Ward scared of Bute, why didn't Bute go into the super 6 i'll tell you why because when he fought Froch we saw he was a fraud, secondly someone said he looks unconvincing in his wins, if you think that you don't no **** about boxing the man is a genius and an amazing fighter, I do hope he moves up but notice last night neither Stevenson or Kovalev mentioned Ward, Adonis said he wants Froch or Bhop no mention of Ward. Ward beats both trust and what will all the haters say then, Ward is number 2 p4p for a reason and it will stay that way

 

I could see Ward being able to neutralize Stevenson's style more so than Kovalev's. Sergey would be more capable of accumulating damage on Andre as well as wearing done his stamina where Adonis has a lower volume and would be tied up when he comes in for his attack. Though I don't see Ward agreeing to travel to Canada for the fight, even if it's for more money.

Sergey has some possible stay busy options with Braehmer, Fonfara, Pascal, Bute, Cloud, and Dawson which is good because I doubt Stevenson or Ward are willing to meet him in the ring until he's a bigger star.

 

Will Bute still be a fraud if he clearly beats Pascal next month?

Prior to losing to Froch, Bute offered to fight Ward in Oakland for less money and Ward turned it down. Instead Andre accepts a fight with a weight drained Dawson in Oakland and tries to fight a clearly shot Pavlik. Now he wants Chavez Jr.

 

Are you drunk or just ******ed?

Bute didn't go into the S6 because he was an HBO fighter at the time. On what network was the S6 set up? :yep

Tell me about those 120-108, 118-110 cards from the Ward-Bika fight. Tell me how they were really fair. :rofl

 

As fair as I can see, no ones said Ward isn't P4P No.2, most are just stating facts. And one of them is that Ward will struggle to get one of the top fighters at his weight to go back to Oakland for the money that will most likely be on offer. The top guys are people he's already beaten, and have easier fights for more money available to them. It makes sense for Ward to either move weight or fight 'away' as it will be more financially beneficial for him to do so.

It's not an ideal situation to only have had 2 fights since 2011, you don't make money as a boxer by being in the Gym or simply being P4P ranked, you make it by fighting. But for one reason or another Ward simply hasn't done this, and one of the main reasons I can think of are financial constraints when it comes paying an opponent the money they want to come to Oakland to redo something they've already done (drop a lopsided decision to the better boxer).

In your opinion without moving an opponent up or down in weight, and still only fighting in Oakland, who is Ward going to fight next? Something has to change, and IMO it will only be to Ward's benefit when it does, he's already shown he's an extremely good fighter.

So why not either try another weight, or challenge himself by fighting in another country maybe make a big PPV fight with Froch, either in the UK or as Froch seems to be open to Las Vegas? There's now obvious money fights for him at 175 as well. It doesn't even seem be a lack of confidence, it seems more a sense of entitlement whereby he believes people should either have to or even want to fight him in Oakland just because he's the best. Unfortunately Boxing's a business first and without a massive fan base or PPV money that's not going to happen.

 

There will be fights for him there in time, but who's he going to fight in the immediate future? So long as he doesn't go all Roy Jones he can always come back down for those fights when the make sense its only 7lbs, I'm not saying go to Cruiser or Heavy . The best fighters in history have challenged themselves at different weights, and if he was comfortable enough a decade ago to win an Olympic title at the next weight up then I think he'd be comfortable enough there now, he's not going to have got any smaller in frame in 10 years.

I see your points with Pavlik and Dawson, however Pavlik was a fighter that relied on his size advantage over opponents and drank like a Hobo, I don't think Ward relies on his size much at all, and I can't see him turning out to be an Alcoholic either. Dawson had no business moving down in weight, but again no one wants Ward to go down to 160, and he certainly wouldn't be weight drained at 175.

Virgil Hunter certainly thought he was capable of doing it a couple of years ago, he was quoted saying this during the Super Six.

“By 32 years old, Andre Ward will be heavyweight champion of the world,” says the confident trainer. “He has always beaten guys bigger than him, even in the amateurs. If Andre gets to 200 pounds naturally and maybe grows an inch taller, he could become heavyweight champion absolutely.”

I don't see much having changed since then, Ward's still been dominant, and if his trainer talked at one point of a Heavyweight Ward then I don't see why 175 is such a problem.

 

As he has clearly dominated the best super Middles and getting one of the middleweight names to move up seems unlikely, I wouldn't mind him moving up.

The light heavy fight we all need to see is Stevenson kovalev

 

168 has been pretty exciting for a while. Personally, I'm not so sure o the need for a 7lb weight difference at that weight, but whatever. I kind of agree Ward should move up. He's kind of done all he can do there. I would rather he stayed just long enough to fight Golovkin, if that is coming soon. That fight would be an interesting clash of styles. Otherwise, might as well just make the jump.

 

Ward v Stevenson or kovelev would both fun and I'd watch but would much rather they fought each other - come to think if it there isn't anyone I really WANT to see Ward fight - he is bloody good but needs a worthy challenge - I don't want to see him fight froch or Bhop - bika fight was pretty awful - ggg would be fun but don't see it happening. Come to think if it Not sure how he keeps himself relevant without chasing Stevenson or kovelev.