Now that he's announced his retirement, how do you think he fares against those who came before him. For me Andre was an incredible talent who fought everyone he could barring Adonis Stevenson. An incredible talent who reminds me of an atheltic Bernard Hopkins. Does he stand the test of history? Or is he nowhere near that level?
I don't see how we can compare SOB to those who went before him based on 4 or 5 fights at light heavy with everything stacked in his favour such as home ref, officials, home advantage, like literally his back garden and of course his less than legal/legit tactics who the ref inexplicably always turns a blind eye to. If he had legit victories against Stevenson, Jack, Beterbiev or even relative novices like Gvozdyk or Bivol maybe we could compare him to some decent light heavies of recent times. Does he rank alongside the likes of Archie Moore, Michael Spinks, Bob Foster, Ezzard Charles.....**** NO!
At 168, I'd put him number two h2h behind Jones and either one or two on resume next to Calzaghe. At 175, he obviously left a lot of fights on the table but h2h he'd be top 5ish.
168 is fairly weak historically because it's only really been around since the mid-late 1980s and didn't gain popularity until early 1990s. I think Ward definitely makes the top ten in the division. Top five almost definitely. But obviously if you were to include 168 pounders of the whole of history, he'd probably be nowhere again, because we'd be dragging guys like Harry Greb and Lloyd Marshall and Ezzard Charles (among others) into the discussion.
At the shortlist for being at the top of 168 (since its official conception), can't rank him at 175. That doesn't mean he wouldn't give very good fighters there a run for their money or win in a one-off scenario, but I don't see him being able to campaign as a full LHW long enough to displace the legacy guys. He fought a physically grueling style that wore him out after 5 fights at the weight and 32 in total.
Ward shouldn't be in the conversation at 175 as he doesn't have the resume like the all time greats. Two controversial wins over Kovalev (who isn't anywhere near an ATG or top 25 at LHW), a win over a drained Dawson and really that's about it. I think he can be in the conversation at 168. He had some good wins there.
At 168, he's probably a top 1-3 guy. I'd say he's #2 here. At light heavy, probably top 15-20. His last fight was at age 33, so much for his talk about moving up in class. A very talented, but rule bender type who exited the game too early. I do not think he will be missed.
I don't know. I was just saying we'd have to look into all those names. Ezzard might be, or might not be. Tommy Loughran or Billy Conn might be a better example. Lloyd Marshall, Archie Moore, D!ck Tiger, etc. Loads of historical middles and light-heavies were good at 168 pounds.
