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After getting the ref on his side and kov's trainer who threw him under the bus, he retired right away knowing that if he stayed he'd have to fight two hall of famers in their prime. There's no doubt about this. Ward knew and anyone who denies this is lying to himself. There's no way ward would have beaten bivol in a decision and he likely would have gotten stopped by beterbiev in the later rounds. If kov dropped ward, imagine what beterbiev would have done to ward.
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Last edited by satiev1; 01-15-2024, 02:25 AM. -
That may have been a consideration. There were probably other factors too. Knowing his body, being financially secure, not being motivated for further training camps, etc.
It's easy to build a simplistic narrative based on large assumptions. Not really that interesting, though. -
If Ward would not have retired he'd have been ordered to face Badou Jack. Instead Jack was promoted from Regular Champion to full champion when the Super Champion Ward retired, then Jack was ordered to face interim champion Bivol, but instead Jack chose to challenge WBC and lineal champion Adonis Stevenson. Thus Bivol vaulted from WBA's tertiary champion to primary champion. But since Ward was a bigger paycheck than Stevenson, I think it's safe to assume if Ward hadn't retired then Jack would have taken that fight and Bivol would have ended up waiting another year or more to actually get a fight with the winner.Comment
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why didn't beterbiev fight kovalev? i believe he had something like 3 fights at the time. his team wasn't going to let that fight happen. ward had one belt to collect from Stevenson, not fight Beterbiev with 3-5 fights or 'i don't even remember what the hell Bivol was doing at the time!'. stop the BS.
Either Ward ducked Steveson or it was impossible to make the fight between Haymon and Rocnation if people didn't notice they were offering big money to Broner and Thurman but neither of them took the money or they couldn't due to contracts.Comment
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The conspiracies in here are unbelievable.Comment
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That's pretty ridiculous.
Kovalev was better than Beterbiev & especially Bivol in 2018.
He was a top 3-5 P4P fighter.
Why fight Kovalev but be afraid of somebody not as good as Kovalev?Comment
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You’re an idiot. Beterbiev and Bivol were barely a blip on the radar when Ward retired. Ward retired because he was financially set and was often injured in the later part of his career.
It just has to be something ****** like this. It just couldn’t be that Ward had been involved in boxing for almost 25 years and was done with it.
Tell the truth, if it got announced that Ward’s next fight was against the unknown and unproven Beterbiev/Bivol, you would have cried like a bytche.Last edited by just the facts; 01-16-2024, 02:42 AM.Comment
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Kovalev won the first fight.Comment
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Ward was in Bivol camp and sparred him. I believe it was for the Barrera fight. Ward was part of the HBO team brought in to build Bivol. They had a special named chasing greatness.
Ward retired shortly after. He knew he didn't have the legs to outbox Bivol. Bivol is long range. Andre's grappling skills wouldn't work.Comment
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