Where does Andre Ward rank amongst the LHW fighters of yesteryear

Not high at all. I mean if you want to hypothetical H2H matches, you can put his 168 lb. fights against 175 lb. fighters under the same day weigh ins. While I think Ward is an excellent fighter, I wouldn't put him especially high on H2H matchups.

As for his achievements at the weight, he spent such a small amount of time at 175. Barrera and Brand were decent wins over unheralded opposition. Barrera has had a couple of wins since the Ward fight and is considered a top 10 guy, Ward's win over him may be better in retrospect.

The first fight with Kovalev was a disputed decision. In the rematch, Ward had done a great job at turning the fight around with that right hand and the follow-up, but the ending was just disappointing. The last shot was clearly low as shown in slow-motion, the other two before that were harder to tell from the angle, but did look low as well. The fans missed out on a better conclusion.

Ward ranks very high all-time at 168. 175 has a very rich history and Ward had four fights there, he's not ranked highly at all there.

 

He would be a good sparring partner

 

He got a gift versus Kovalev who'll never be in any sensible top 20 LHW list (& I'm a fan of Kovalev) .. & then got a dubious stoppage win second time round... other than that what's he done? 2 dubious fights against Kovalev... in a division stacked with talent at the time Gvozdyk, Beterbiev, Bivol, Stevenson, Alvarez..

He retired at 33 citing physical toll.. so how do u think hed get on in Loughrans , Tunney , Charles, Foster etc eras when they fought far more frequently, had fewer divisions, lighter gloves, no modern recovery methods & no PEDs...

Ward’s reliance on two debated wins over Kovalev who i think is probably lower end of the top 25 maybe.. and his avoidance of the other LHWs keep him below the elite tier. He’s a great modern fighter if u like his headbutting jab & grabbing but his LHW legacy doesn’t match historical giants like Moore, Spinks, Conn, Bivins, Jones, Greb, Rosenbloom etc... even Dariusz.. i think Michalkzewski & Hill rank above him. Bivol too..