Comments Thread For: Ward: Canelo's Refusal to Fight Benavidez Would Taint His Legacy

[Lefty0616]

If he's got a belt he needs to face the guys who have been declared mandatory. To not do so makes the boxing system worthless. The WBC, WBA and IBF need to be making the decision as to who he fights.

I absolutely agree. If he has a belt. He needs to defend it if he has a mandatory.

[Verus]

The reality is that "legacy" is not determine by current fans, fanboys, detractors, haters, or pundits, it will be determined by future generations. It is those future generations who will assess the merits and demerits (legacy) of boxers of this and other past eras. Andre Ward's opinion aside, he and the rest of us can only determine the " legacy" of past generations. The legacy of current athletes, and other people of this generation is not ours to determine. It takes a huge ego to believe otherwise. Boxing in this country is a niche sport and becoming more and more irrelevant as time goes by. My concern is for the sport of boxing itself and not about the legacy of Canelo or Andre Ward for that matter. The future holds the answer to the legacy question.

[Verus]

Alvared isn't afraid. He just won't fight anybody that has a chance to beat him. In this case Benavidez would totally embarrasss and stop him because clownelo mentally quits when things aren't going his way. At this sage of his career he just can't afford to look bad even at the cost of Al Haymon's guaranteed $55 million.

Haymon never guaranteed $55 million! That was BS by the Benavidez camp who promptly retracted when they were called on it. Haymon couldn't even come up with the contracted amount of $35 million, much less a $35 million guarantee. Try to keep up. FYI. name calling does not add credibility to your argument.

[57Blues]

Benavidez not even a legacy fight yet not even reached his prime yet his best win is caleb plant ffs...Ward just hating as usual Benny lost his belts for being an overweight cokehead for crying out loud what legacy are this guys talking about?

he is talking about taking the biggest challenge is what he is saying and he is not alone. not talking about taking the biggest challenge every time you step into the ring but dont be so selective about who your going to fight and make it out to be a lottery instead of an evenly matched event that always lands on PPV as a event. i agree with the guy, not news but someone outside a boxing forum is saying it who knows something about being in the ring and match making not my favorite fighter but he is talking sense ............every fighter and team look for an advantage but there are limits to even that approach.

[Poopdick]

Wards decision to retire young and undefeated when he had 2 killers stepping up into mandatories is talked about every time I see his name pretty much.

[uppercut510]

peds have already tainted his legacy, hes a great fighter tho

[sidefx996]

Hagler fought HOFamers like hearns SRL Duran and mugabi that’s 4 elite level HOFame level fights and opposition in which he went 3-1. Lil g on the other hand has fought ONE current or future HOFamer and went 0-1-2 against him. Just think about that. He in his whole career only ever even tried to fight ONE elite fighter. Never even tried to fight another elite fighter at his own weight just sat around beating up cab drivers waiting for canelo to chose him for a payday. Like everyone else in boxing these days

One can go back and forth to suit their narrative all day long (and I'm sure yours has as much to do with GGG's skin tone as it does with your opinion of his resume). And you can pretty much do this with anyone. GGG fought who was there at the time. Guys like Cotto and Martinez (and others) wanted NO part of him. Neither did Canelo until GGG got older. And anyone with a pulse knows GGG won AT LEAST one of those fights anyway. Who else did you want him to fight besides a much bigger Andre Ward? GGG is a small middleweight. He steps into the ring at what? 168-170? Danny Jacobs was reported to step into the ring at 185-190 when he fought GGG (and still got knocked down and lost). SRL beat Hagler. Hearns had fought at welterweight just a few years prior to fighting Hagler at middleweight. He broke his hand in the very first round, and also opened a cut on Hagler that very well should've stopped the fight. Duran was a lightweight who, like Hearns, was still fighting at welterweight just a few years prior to fighting Hagler. He was several years older than Hagler, and he still managed to fight at SMW several times before he retired. And Mugabi was yet again another smaller fighter who was still fighting at super welterweight years after fighting Hagler at middleweight. And who was his best win again? Unlike Mugabi, at least guys like Jacobs, Lemieux and Geale were actual middleweight champions. Take your rose colored glasses off once in awhile.

[QballLobo]

Ward getting the gift decision against Kovalev and then all the low blows in the rematch tainted his legacy.

[STREET CLEANER]

Unless Benavidez has a fantastic run then it would affect Canelo's legacy because he avoided him. If he looses along the way years from it people will forget about him.

Regardless that is the fight that the boxing world wants to watch and Canelo is the only one impeding that it happens. Maybe some Saudi money should get thrown in the mix.

[IceTrayDaGang]

canelo should just do what ward did... wait until kov shows signs of declining then take the fight... canelo should do the same with Benavidez..