Didn't Crawford also score a d!ck shot TKO over Khan? He shoved Postol to the canvas by the back of the head and had it called a knockdown. He had a ref not call a knockdown when he was dropped by Kava. He was allowed to KO Ava with tampered gloves. Both men have fought outside the U.S. only once (Ward in Saint Lucia and Crawford in Scotland). Let's not pretend like both are squeaky clean.
Ward but Crawford has a very weak resume for a 41 fight vet top 5 P4P star That being said Ward lost to Kovalev Should've been DQ'd against Kessler for his despicable use of the head where he inflicted three gaping cuts to Kessler's eyes and cheek all from separate billy goat butts and even worse continued to butt the crap out of him even after his face was a mask of blood And Dawson was an absolute shell of himself after boiling down to fight at a weight he hadn't fought at in six and a half years and getting knocked senseless in sparring a few weeks earlier and Ward obviously wanted Dawson as weak as possible and I can elaborate on that if need be And Ward was a haves gloves won't travel warrior who refused to ever play a game he expected everyone else to play and he is one of the dirtiest fighters of all time who entered the ring with 5 weapons not the legal 2 and wouldn't have been 50% of the fighter he was if you took away all his illegal tactics and cheating, whereas, conversely, Crawford is generally a clean fighter and has achieved everything he has via the use of 2 legal weapons. Granted he fought 40 of his 41 fights in his home country and all his foreign world champion opponents he won titles off or against had to bring their belts to him sans Burns but Ward wouldn't dare travel to his opponents backyard even once. Crawford>>Ward both as a fighter and as a human being too
omg, genuinely strugglin' wit dis: crawfraud might be the ward of the lower weights, that's why they're actin' all buddies and kisses in interviews lmao
I feel like Dawson kind of showed he fell apart at the top level prior to the fight, and Kessler is a better win due to that. Agreed outside of that.. shame how Kovalev went downhill after the first Ward fight, great fighter.
I was going to write a post but this captures everything i believe. Ward was so dirty that he made Wlad look like a clean fighter. And that is saying something.
Yeah, the fact he was such a filthy dirty cheat, refused to fight on a level playing field, let alone one stacked in his opponent's favour, and would only sign on the dotted line if he had all the advantages that could be wangled in his favour wangled in his favour shouldn't be ignored. Crawford's resume might be weak and he was far from a road warrior himself but I have much more respect for him as a fighter and person than I do Ward.
Ward ruined Kovalev in their first fight. He was honestly never the same for some reason, he did take a whooping down the stretch (the bodyshots were breaking him). Ward for me and it isn't even close.
If you were just looking at Boxrec the answer would clearly be Ward. But, as someone who watched Ward's tactics, and the gift he got against Kovalev, things get a little closer.
Kovalev fell apart after, because Andre exposed him as being a bully. Whatever you thought about the ending of the rematch, Andre broke him down both physically and mentally, where Kovalev was never the same afterwards. I saw Andre hit him with 2 great body shots, which were 100% clean, which nobody could have disputed. And Kovalev looked at the referee in pure desperation. That’s when the fight was over. Kovalev could give it, but he couldn’t take it.
Well, not really, Kovalev won the first fight by every metric a fight can be scored and we robbed. So, no.
For time and place fought, clearly Ward, overall, but Crawford is more fights in more classes which also matters. Madrimov's career going forward could change what this looks like in a few years, retrospectively. I will pick Ward right now though.
Ward winning the super 8 tournament is probably a better achievement than anything most top guys have done in todays scene.
Bud Bud has no history of low blows, holding and hitting, or demanding every fight happens in Oakland. Also, Ward robbed Kovalev in fight 1 - Bud never involved in anything like that