Quote Originally Posted by Rantcatrat View Post
Quote Originally Posted by shza View Post
Surprised this hasn't been posted yet. Both guys say they are up for it, though Martinez says "at a catchweight."

Martinez wants to fight Ward, and vice versa | RingTV
I'm as big a Sergio fan as any but, frankly, Ward is just too big for him regardless of the weight the day before the fight. Ward was a light heavyweight in the Olympics and now fights at 168. Sergio started his career at welterweight and spent the majority of it at light middleweight. Ward legitimately walks around at 185 and weighs in the night of the fight at 180. I actually believe Sergio is a small middleweight (much like Cotto is a small junior middleweight). Sergio is an "in betweener" between junior middleweight and middleweight. Add to it that Ward is as fast as Sergio or at least around as fast; Sergio goes into this fight without any advantages over Ward except maybe punching power, and we don't even know if Sergio can carry that up with him. It's just too big of a hill to climb. Of course, I would give Sergio the utmost credit even if he fought Ward and lost. Plus Ward has big fights all around him at his weight.
I agree with all that but even with these disadvantages, Martinez would still easily be the biggest challenge Ward has had. Probably a bigger challenge than Bute -- the jury's still out on that, I guess (similar styles, actually, with Bute bigger and more powerful and Martinez faster and with better reflexes/"defense").

The only guy I might pick to beat Ward is Chad Dawson (I might pick Hopkins too but that fight's not going to happen, per Hopkins), but I'd like to see how Chad looks whenever he finally gets back in the ring.