Which do you feel are Kovalevs and Wards 5 best wins?

Wards resume is much better

 

Ward has a better resume for sure. Ward's got a couple wins which are better than Kovalev's and he's also got more names in general.

 

IMO...

Ward:

Froch
Kessler
Dawson
Abraham
Miranda
-------

Kovalev:

Pascal ('14)
Pascal ('16)
Hopkins
Campillo
Cleverly

 

I think splitting hairs re whether beating Kessler at home is better than beating Cleverly away etc is missing the main point: Ward's best wins were 5 years ago, at a lower weight class; Kovalev's within the last 2-3 years in the relevant weight class.

 

correct. we are comparing what one fighter is today, to what a fighter was years ago. compare their last 3 years of work and the gap in quality becomes obvious.

 

I give the edge to Kovalev. Both have good resume, but fanboys tend to really exaggerate Ward resume.

 

Wards resume would look better if he didn't beat already exposed fighters. Kessler would probably be his best win. Froch already got outboxed by Dirrel and Taylor. Abraham was a MW who lost every fight in the bogus S6. Dawson was a corpse.

 

If I judge each of their resumes without bias and where they were in their respective careers, then it's Ward and it's not even close. Let's look at their resumes for a moment.


Kovalev's Resume-

Nathan Cleverly- Protected domestic level champ. Won a vacant interim belt and hasn't fought anybody in his bogus title reign. Lost to lesser fighters after Kovalev.

Jean Pascal- One of the most overrated fighters I've ever seen. His most notable win was winning a technical decision over an unmotivated Dawson in which Dawson was about to knock him out if the fight weren't stopped due to a headbutt. After that lucky decision, he had a draw/loss against a 47 year old man. Before moving up to LHW he lost to Froch... Supremely overrated win.

Hopkins- A bloated up, 50 year old man. 15 years passed his prime and optimal weight. Lost against an unmotivated Dawson several fights before.

Campillo- Beaten and KO'd by lesser opponents before and after Kova fought him. Has like 444454543 losses. Got knocked out by feather fisted Fonfara.


Andre Ward's Resume

Chad Dawson- Lineal LHW champ. Got knocked out, quit, and had the prime beaten out of him by Ward. Was never the same again.

Mikkel Kessler- The reigning WBA Champ, number 1 SMW in the world and the S6 tournament favorite. Only loss was against Slappy Joe 2 years ago in which Slappy slapped his way towards a UD against a severely injured Kessler. Ward beat a better, non injured, more prime Kessler while he was still green. Kessler would go on to beat Froch in his next fight, the best win in his career.

Carl Froch- Number 2 SMW in the world behind Ward. Ward beat him with 1 arm, not really much to say. Froch would later go on to unify the SMW division and enter the top 10 p4p lists.

Arthur Abraham- The hardest hitting MW of the last generation. Would go on to win 2 more SMW belts and become the number 1 SMW in the world for several years.

Bika- Top SMW contender. Would go on later to win the WBC SMW title.

 

So you basically derided every Kovalev win and upgraded every Ward win.