Ward should have fought Dirrell, GGG and Canelo to solidify his claim as being one of the best ever. But he left the game unfinished. I wish he had not retired, but I respect his decision.
Printable View
Ward should have fought Dirrell, GGG and Canelo to solidify his claim as being one of the best ever. But he left the game unfinished. I wish he had not retired, but I respect his decision.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ykdadamaja
I totally understand your feelings on this one. I also thought Ward left a bit prematurely. The other side of the coin is, he left at 33 years old. He did have a 13-year professional career. That's pretty reasonable given the nature of boxing. There's always going to be fighters out there that we wish had been matched. But because of: age differences, weight differences, or (ugh) promotional differences... sometimes it doesn't happen.
Ward was one of those lucky/ smart fighters to go out on top. You can't fault his resume. He fought some very respectable and even elite opposition. I personally thought Kovalev was going to destroy him in their first fight. Yet he survived... won... and exposed the bully in their second fight (laying out the blueprint for one famous boxing "hyena" who later picked apart the scraps).
So basically you can't fault Ward too much... and like you, I also respect his decision.
Ward struggled/overcame Kov who was an undefeated beast at light heavyweight. It really shows his greatness to become the best at super middleweight and go up and face Kovalev.
Ward got a bloody nose in the first round and knocked down in the second. He looked shocked but got up and showed his courage to pull back and win.
For the record I thought he lost and the rematch was a low blow but he remained undefeated.
Froch wanted a rematch, Bellew wanted to face him and think he was tempted to go heavyweight but turned it all down. Good for him.
andre should have lost the first fight with sergey & won the rematch on a foul. andre wasn't sticking around to fight artur
I remember when the narrative was "Golovkin is ducking Ward" ;D. Not his biggest fan but I don't recall any possibility of Canelo and rightfully so. Would have been silly to see a guy being called "green" vs Floyd jumping 2 full divisions to fight Ward fresh off of his super six run :-X. He would have received the same treatment from Ward. It's interesting compared with today that he came in off of a long layoff and managed the 2 year run at 175 that he did. But he lost that first Kovalev fight for me. Respect the hell out of Golovkin but tbh after the BS robbery draw vs Canelo in 2017 it was all about another fight and scores settled. And again two full divisions away. It would have been interesting to see him press for full 175 unification and a fight with Stevenson though. Then again Kovalev had no luck with that "huge" unification fight happening also.