Andre Ward (feeling a bit sorry for him)

All the hype between Froch and Kessler who are not in his league getting more attention than he probably ever will.

Probably the best fighter on the planet bar Mayweather and the guy is stuck in a place were superfights will probably elude him due to how bloody good the guy is. Nobody wants to fight him and there is no real interest in him no matter who wins on Saturday as he will always beat anyone in the SWM division.

Sorry state of affairs when a guy this talented is only getting publicity off the back of 2 guys he beat.

What can he do? I cant see many options on the biggest of stage where he is.

Its a pity.
What can he do to fix this situation? A fight between the winner of Froch vs Kessler will be nowhere near as big as the fight on Saturday and even in the LHW division its slim pickings.

Hope he gets what he deserves, a talent like this should not be shunned to the side to make way for fighters beneath him.

Lets hope one of the MW's (Chavez, GGG, Martinez) get to his level and bring out the audience and recognition he deserves.

Rant over.

Thoughts?

Cheers

Dee!

To be fair, although he's brilliantly effective at what he does, Ward is lacking two main things:

1) An exciting style. He slips punches, counters brilliantly, puts together combinations, spoils, grabs and butts. It's clinical, but as dull as sh**.

2) A personality. He's as exciting as beige paint.

Nobody wants to watch that. Two of the division's hard men going toe to toe with neither backing down & a bit of needle between the two? THAT is what fans want to see.

ward needsto move down A division and fight mayweather.

Hit the nail on the head Reborn,

Sadly very little he can do, throw in the fact he seems injury prone and it really is looking bleak.

Whilst I agree that he will most likely outclass whoever wins Saturday night I do think that a rematch will be of interest, more so if either Kessler/Froch win in very impressive fashion.

Outside of that he is probably hoping that one of the divisions prospects come through during his time, which given he is only 29 you would think someone may come up and provide a challenge.

Whilst he outclassed Dawson, it has to remembered that it was at Super-Middle so you would have to say that if he is looking to improve his record and legacy then stepping up is the next logical thing to do.

Dawson at Light Heavy...winner of Pascal/Bute (but even that is a bit of 'meh' affair)....Hopkins, ok he is old but certainly capable of testing Ward especially on the inside...Cleverly, haha don't worry I am joking..

Other than that, as you said he is probably hoping one of Chavez,GGG or Martinez step up....

My opinion.....why not go down (assuming he can)...risky obviously but would be a huge move and massively propel him if he were to do it and win!!

Yea, its that easy. Maybe Wlad should move down to fight Frampton too. Come on, be serious here you!!!!

Ward although a very good fighter is hardly a name worth mentioning.

He is boring. He can't self promote so trust me hardly anyone knows of him.

Chavez must moving up will make him some money or Ward move up and rematch Dawson at light heavy.
Not much else around for him to beat that enhances his status.

Maybe Groves or Degale in year or two but I can see hoe that may be clutching at straws. Ward is just too good.

Haha bit of a difference there Reborn....your asking Wlad to lose 120+ plus...anyway as Winchester would say, take away those advantages and Frampton would do him!!!

But seriously, I agree that it may not be viable and Ward may not feel comfortable doing so, but the potential for him to do so is there. Dawson came down, and whilst he wasn't himself that isn't to say Ward wouldn't be should he choose to lose 8lbs.

I actually always get a little perplexed these days when people say it is suicide asking a fighter to come down in weight...it may be if they are huge for the weight but if they are just 'normal' super-middles, middles, welters etc I don't see why coming down is a bad idea. With the technology, information, nutritionists available in the modern era it is certainly plausible that it can be done safely and effectively.

Didn't Dawson box as a light heavy in the olympics?

For that reason alone going to middle seems a bit much.

It's been a largely frustrating year and a half for Ward, that's for sure. That's how long it's been since he 'arrived' as a genuinely top class fighter, gatecrashing the pound for pound rankings, but in that space of time just one fight, albeit a very impressive one.

He's been talking (last week's Boxing News being an example) about how much he wants to make the transition over to becoming a PPV attraction as soon as possible, but I doubt he's going to show too much flexibility to make that happen and I think we can safely forget about him slimming down to 160 in order to rake in the extra $. He's said quite a few times that he's a Super-Middleweight right now, pure and simple, no ifs and buts. When quizzed on the Dawson fight, he just calmly points out that it was Dawson's idea to go back down to 168 for a fight because he felt he could. On the other hand, Ward has set his stall out from the off; 160 is a no-go for him.

He's extinguished all of the meaningful opposition (as of now) at 168 and missed a trick by not giving Dawson a pasting at 175 (let's be honest, Ward's just too good for 'Bad Chad' in either weight class) and becoming a Ring Magazine champion in two divisions. If he goes up to Light-Heavyweight now, people will question the need and point of a Dawson rematch, and if he goes for another one of the titlists (Cleverly, Shumenov, old man Popkins etc) then he's basically just beating the guys who aren't as good as Dawson in any case.

My guess is that a Chavez fight for Ward's Super-Middleweight titles may well be on the agenda for late 2013 / early 2014. Martinez has said time and again that he's got no interest in the Super-Middleweight division, Golovkin has his sights set on Martinez, but Chavez was bursting at the seams at 160 and, given his career so far, you'd have to think he'd not be too far away from a shot at Ward's old WBC belt (I believe he's champion emeritus right now, while Sulaiman looks for an interim / regular / blah blah blah champion) if and when he does move up full-time. Chavez brings in decent numbers and couldn't beat Ward even if he had countless attempts to do so, I reckon, so he could be the short-term answer to SOG's problems.

Slight stumbling block there Chris is that Ward has just recently rescinded his emeritus title given to him by the WBC. Basically told them to sod off (I applaud him) because they hung him out to dry by stripping him of the title in the first place just so they could make some extra dollars of another title fight for an 'interim' title.

Given Chavez and his placing with the WBC I would imagine if he stepped up to fight at Super Middle that would be the only belt he would be going for....

Another problem for Ward! Basically the guy just seems like he will have one of those extremely frustrating careers....with very little he could have actually done about it!

No point Ward moving up. There is probably fewer challengers there than in his current weight division.

To be fair, boiling down to 165lbs is a possibility which may allow him to secure a fight against a Chavez, Martinez or GGG.

Having said that, a rematch with Froch/ Kessler will still sell well if he decides to fight away from home.

He's technically very good, and he showed against Dawson he does have the ability to take a fighter out. If he can start doing that against the likes of Kessler, Froch etc. people will start to take note.

It's in his hands if he wants to be a PPV fighter and not another Guillermo Rigondeaux....

Think mr bounce summed him up nicely.

I do think there is a danger that we're all over-egging the ward hype train a bit. He's clearly very very good, but I'm not so convinced he's unbeatable. He's clearly top dog in the division but he hasn't been that active, it doesnt automatically follow that he'd beat all and sundry from middle to light heavy. Of course he'd be strong favourite but he's been in trouble before, and i 'd be interested to see how he handled a slick boxer - like dirrell if he ever gets his mojo back. The fight would stink, but hey.

Re Dawson rematch. I'm not so sure it's a none starter at light heavy sometime in the future Chris. Weight drained is an easy excuse, but for a round it looked an even fight! Ward is not known as a puncher, but Dawson went bambi with every punch.

Remstching tomorrow's winner or Jcc junior look the obvious bets, though. For all we assume that junior must be aware of his own limitations, he did take on Martinez and almost pulled the rabbit out of the hat, so he might fancy it.

Just not a big attraction and its as simple as that

If you don't have a exciting style you have to have a charisma to get proper attention and Ward has neither

Super effective, very smart, brilliant technician and well spoken , none of which indicates a big draw

His reluctance to go abroad will hurt him. He says he's the champ and doesn't need to leave his country, the champs he beat weren't from the US so that rubbishes his point. Kessler came to the UK for Forch and Calzaghe and those 2 fights were more published than any of Wards. With all of his wins being in a favourable venue you do think that he could have done more to get bigger fights

Having to call out Chavez shows how desperate he is to get in with someone who will make it exciting so he can get some buzz going

Long story short he only has himself to blame for not being a huge draw imo

Winner of the Kessler vs Froch rematch away from home is the first fight he should look for, a draw in that one, which is very possible given the close nature of the first fight would really leave Ward with not much on. Why on earth Chavez would consider fighting Ward I do not know, Ward brings little to the table financially and would beat him 100 time out of 100 so I think thats a bit of a non starter. He could move into an average Light Heavyweight division if he wants but when he only fights once a year it seems it would take him a while to clear it out and there's no real stand out fight there anyway.

agreed, Froch would fight him in Nottingham.

I agree Chavez will have little desire to fight Ward as he's the bigger draw and doesn't need a fight he will lose when he can fill stadiums fighting lesser opponents.

I'm not that keen on Ward. He's very cynical and a dirty fighter.

Ward must be praying to his GOD that Froch wins tonight in impressive fashion. I think that is the only fight at Super Middle taht could be marketed. The promotional men, could heavily market a renewed Froch.

The truth being of course that ward is just a level above.

Bhop ward would be a horror show. Agreed with Strongy Chavez will want nothing to do with Ward. He can just about hold his head up after being used as a punch bag by Martinez because of the 12th round. He doen't need another outclassing this soon in his career.

I'm not going to call Ward boring because the manner is a master ring general of B-Hop proportions and some.

He's a gift between the ropes.

However, he is not a gift in willingness to fight outside of San Fran. If he does that more fights will open up for him. Why shouldn't he fight Froch away or Kessler away after this. Both fights earn him at least 2 million, plus PPV. He's beaten both men well, the judges would be neutral, the ref too. It raise his profile.

I find Andre Ward to be arrogant. Which he has a right to be of course. But still, he needs to take more risks to gain more rewards. He talks PPV on HBO but that would bomb without a Chavez Jr or Froch. He needs a warrior to make him look good.

So in short, no. I don't feel totally sorry for Ward. He got a fair shake in the super six, against Dawson and has had injuries.

He needs to take a bigger risk in terms of advantages.

I find him utterly boring and really dont rate him high in the p4p by choice.

Beat a drained dawson, froch, kessler (via headbutt), abraham etc.....but looke Poopie in doing so and never came out his comfort zone.

The day we see ward in denmark or the uk is when hell freezes over.

He says that froch needs to go over to the states to make a name for himself? So he can be recognised worldwide? Well ward is that boring nobody knows him in the uk so he needs to come over here really.

Dont likw his personality or his fight style. People dont fight him because whats the point? Draws no fans, headbutts your face in and is boring. Id avoid too. Id rather have a war or a decent fight.

Ward is IMO the best PFP fighter in the world and no has currently dominated a division in the same way he has.. He literally has no where to go at that weight because he is simply too good and beat everyone too easy. A Froch rematch?, Why? he completely out boxed him for about 10 rounds and was also meant to have an injured hand.

And I think the only reason he is seen as "Boring" is because no one usually gives him any problems in the ring and he beats them easy.

The reason he has not got a bigger name is he should have fought more outside of his home town, simple as that..

Froch is a different beast now, potentially has two belts, commands PPV, would help build Andre Ward's profile, I can think of a few reasons.

To be fair froch Kessler is only big in this country although I don't no America that well but would imagine ward fighting will get more viewers than froch Kessler

If Andre Dirrell decided to commit to boxing, I think he could give ward problems. Its a marketable fight, 2 american fighters.

I just don't know what Dirrels plans are, he signed for fiddy, and fought a shut out at the start of the year, his brother went to jail and haven't heard of him being in the mix at all. He's the forgotten man of the super six, made Froch look stupid, seems to have a dig on him, was the first to do a number on one of the tourney favourites Abraham.

His biggest problem seems to be he has a touch of the Judah's about him. If he got his head straight he has the talent IMO to beat Ward.

People say Froch is better fighter now, at 35 why?, because he beat Bute who was never really tested anyway or fought outside of Canada? and because he wiped away Mack? ..

It was a good performance against Bute, but There was always a question mark about Bute fighting out of Canada and against top opposition, and he clearly did not pass it.

I think its fair to say Froch is still very fit and on his game despite being 35 but I don't think he had got better... He has just aged well and experience is always a good advantage I guess.

jimdig wrote:If Andre Dirrell decided to commit to boxing, I think he could give ward problems. Its a marketable fight, 2 american fighters.

Ward has already said he won't fight Dirrell as they're close friends. That said, I agree Dirrell gives him problems...

That type of thing annoys me, I can understand brothers not fighting as that could really divide a family, but friends? That's stupid.

Mr Bounce wrote:

jimdig wrote:If Andre Dirrell decided to commit to boxing, I think he could give ward problems. Its a marketable fight, 2 american fighters.

Ward has already said he won't fight Dirrell as they're close friends. That said, I agree Dirrell gives him problems...

Thats crazy, what would of happen had they met at the super 6? If Dirrell has any ambition he must realise that at 168, he has to aim to fight Ward.

If there's enough money on the table friendships can be suspended.

double post