Official Andre Ward vs. Arthur Abraham RbR and discussion thread...

[mathed]

I dont get it, the hate towards Andre Ward that is - Great guy, articulate, smart and one helluva fighter too he makes the top 3 or 4 p4p in my opinion and also i dont find him boring at all he isnt a jab and grab type or a run away all night kind of guy, he fights

Abraham will want this BADLY! Im expecting him to come out swinging for the fences, a faster start than usual and honestly the best King Arthur we've seen yet. Still tho i cant see it being enough, the first few rounds will be testing for Andre but once he gets Abraham under control and back in his shell (he will revert to type) its plain sailing.........

Im excited for this tho, King Arthur has fight ending power so that keeps it intresting

Don't get me wrong, I think Ward is an ok dude...personally. In the ring though, all I see him doing is hugging and roughing the other guy up against the ropes using tactics that belong in an MMA arena, not a boxing ring. That's just my opinion though and if he is one of your favorite fighters and you like the way he fights, then tonight is gonna bring you one heck of a good time. I'm just hoping for some action in there from both guys

[KnockUTheFukOut]

It's just that boxing is not like other sports where you can just win in any form that you want. In box you have to show that you are actually great in order to sell PPV and get more money ... if you win all your fights by TD or extremely boring UD then it's unlikely that you'll get the money that you want to get

EVERYBODY is not going to become big PPV Draws, do your homework

it hasn't been many MAJOR PPV DRAWS in BOXING HISTORY...at least no recently:

Tyson
Oscar
Mayweather
Pacquiao

and the only reason why Mayweather and Pacquiao became PPV Draws was because they fought Oscar! After Mayweather and Pacquiao, I honestly don't see many other fighters becoming MAJOR PPV DRAWS like they are

ALL WARD HAS TO DO IS KEEP WINNING! This Super 6 is getting him the exposure that he needs and IF he wins it then you are talking a potential mega bout with Bute

Fans forget that the fighters 1st PRIORITY IS TO...WIN and if he can just so happen to be exciting and entertaining while he is doing it then fine but I don't think ANY FIGHTER SHOULD CHANGE THE WAY HE FIGHT AND RISK LOSING just to entertain a few CASUAL FANS

[mathed]

EVERYBODY is not going to become big PPV Draws, do your homework

it hasn't been many MAJOR PPV DRAWS in BOXING HISTORY:

Tyson
Oscar
Mayweather
Pacquiao

and the only reason why Mayweather and Pacquiao became PPV Draws was because they fought Oscar! After Mayweather and Pacquiao, I honestly don't see many other fighters becoming MAJOR PPV DRAWS like they are

ALL WARD HAS TO DO IS KEEP WINNING! This Super 6 is getting him the exposure that he needs and IF he wins it then you are talking a potential mega bout with Bute

Fans forget that the fighters 1st PRIORITY IS TO...WIN and if he can just so happen to be exciting and entertaining while he is doing it then fine but I don't think ANY FIGHTER SHOULD CHANGE THE WAY HE FIGHT AND RISK LOSING just to entertain a few CASUAL FANS

I agree that there aren't many BIG PPV stars out there at all. After Manny and Floyd are gone for good, I don't see anyone who will be able to do over 1 million PPV buys..possibly Alvarez if he keeps winning because of Mexico but no one else comes to mind.

[vacon04]

EVERYBODY is not going to become big PPV Draws, do your homework

it hasn't been many MAJOR PPV DRAWS in BOXING HISTORY...at least no recently:

Tyson
Oscar
Mayweather
Pacquiao

and the only reason why Mayweather and Pacquiao became PPV Draws was because they fought Oscar! After Mayweather and Pacquiao, I honestly don't see many other fighters becoming MAJOR PPV DRAWS like they are

ALL WARD HAS TO DO IS KEEP WINNING! This Super 6 is getting him the exposure that he needs and IF he wins it then you are talking a potential mega bout with Bute

Fans forget that the fighters 1st PRIORITY IS TO...WIN and if he can just so happen to be exciting and entertaining while he is doing it then fine but I don't think ANY FIGHTER SHOULD CHANGE THE WAY HE FIGHT AND RISK LOSING just to entertain a few CASUAL FANS

But don't you think that Ward would like to get some PPVs? I mean yeah of course that winning must be his top priority, but we're talking about big money here, and I'm sure that Ward wants to get as much money as possible.

[ikim322]

has nothing to do with Ward being BORING, it is some people who hate him and want to see him lose BADLY but since they don't THINK Abraham can beat him, they are just going to be negative about this fight and they are already calling it boring because they themselves think Ward will win

Ward just have to keep winning, the haters are going to hate on him no matter what he does though, they are always going to find something to complain about

Ward Don't Have To Change ANYTHING HE DOES and he SHOULDN'T! You are undefeated and your Top 10 P4P....let these HALF A$$ boxing fans continue to complain while you continue to win!

What level of ****** are you? Boxing is still an entertainment business. Only a few in history have gotten away with just doing w/e the fk he wants and being boring with it with Hopkins coming to mind. But at least he took up historic challenges and resoundingly knocked off his competition (Prime Hopkins vs Tito was a great, great fight). Who the f is gonna care if someone's undefeated yet no one wants to watch him? Andre Ward mauls and clinches like no other and doesn't really have KO power even though he's physically strong leading up to extremely boring fights. I remember inviting a very casual boxing fan over for Ward-Green expecting some sort of fireworks at least in a couple rounds. Instead what we got was a drained, outclassed, not even punching Green dead on his feet getting dragged the full distance by a clinching (???) useless Ward for one of the more boring fights I've ever seen. I felt terrible because I probably turned my friend off from non mainstream (tons of 'Pac' fans out there...not quite boxing fans) boxing for good. He has not really been in one exciting fight yet. Even the Kessler fight, while a good event for him, was an ugly fight.

I don't really expect Abraham to do much against Ward. Writing was on the wall for Abraham a bit ago. Just hasn't been able to impose his singular style on the bigger, smarter competition at 168. And unless Ward suddenly had a change of mind about actually trying to entertain and/or try to knock out his opponents instead of just swarming and mauling, it should be a fairly drawn out sporadic boring beating.

[The Surgeon]

Don't get me wrong, I think Ward is an ok dude...personally. In the ring though, all I see him doing is hugging and roughing the other guy up against the ropes using tactics that belong in an MMA arena, not a boxing ring. That's just my opinion though and if he is one of your favorite fighters and you like the way he fights, then tonight is gonna bring you one heck of a good time. I'm just hoping for some action in there from both guys

He's a rough fighter but not flat out dirty imo as most seem to believe but thats a quality in its self i guess. I think he is a GREAT inside fighter and while does tie his man up i think Most of the time he lets his hands go and beats guys down at close range. I really thought after Kessler America would jump all over its Gold medal winning star fighter but no.......

[KnockUTheFukOut]

I agree that there aren't many BIG PPV stars out there at all. After Manny and Floyd are gone for good, I don't see anyone who will be able to do over 1 million PPV buys..possibly Alvarez if he keeps winning because of Mexico but no one else comes to mind.

shouldn't Sergio be a PPV Draw now after his impressive year last year...but yet he is still fighting on HBO Channel and he basically NEEDS Manny or Mayweather to fight him for him to get a BIG PAY DAY

so I think all these stuff about "BEING EXCITING" and getting KO's I think that is EXTREMELY OVERRATED especially by FANS, that doesn't "MAKE STARS"...IF ANYTHING CHARISMA and PERSONALITY DOES, that is why Oscar became as big of a draw as he did...it was CHARISMA and PERSONALITY, not just his skills in the ring, also your competition helps! Oscar was lucky enough to have Chavez to fight as well as Whitaker (yeah they was old and on the downside of their careers but they was still BIG NAMES IN THE SPORT AT THE TIME), also the fight with Tito Trinidad was HUGE!

So it is not just about "BEING EXCITING IN THE RING" either!

[KnockUTheFukOut]

What level of ****** are you? Boxing is still an entertainment business. Only a few in history have gotten away with just doing w/e the fk he wants and being boring with it with Hopkins coming to mind. But at least he took up historic challenges and resoundingly knocked off his competition (Prime Hopkins vs Tito was a great, great fight). Who the f is gonna care if someone's undefeated yet no one wants to watch him? Andre Ward mauls and clinches like no other and doesn't really have KO power even though he's physically strong leading up to extremely boring fights. I remember inviting a very casual boxing fan over for Ward-Green expecting some sort of fireworks at least in a couple rounds. Instead what we got was a drained, outclassed, not even punching Green dead on his feet getting dragged the full distance by a clinching (???) useless Ward for one of the more boring fights I've ever seen. I felt terrible because I probably turned my friend off from non mainstream (tons of 'Pac' fans out there...not quite boxing fans) boxing for good. He has not really been in one exciting fight yet. Even the Kessler fight, while a good event for him, was an ugly fight.

I don't really expect Abraham to do much against Ward. Writing was on the wall for Abraham a bit ago. Just hasn't been able to impose his singular style on the bigger, smarter competition at 168. And unless Ward suddenly had a change of mind about actually trying to entertain and/or try to knock out his opponents instead of just swarming and mauling, it should be a fairly drawn out sporadic boring beating.

it has nothing to do with being ******, it is just understanding how boxing works, everybody is not going to have the same style, everybody is not going to be a Knock Out Artist, everybody is not going to be a boxing Tactician

STYLES MAKE FIGHTS...when people say that they are talking about BOTH FIGHTERS, not just one...IT TAKES TWO FIGHTERS TO PUT ON A GOOD FIGHT!

Is it really Ward fault that his Opponents can't fight inside so they have no clue how to keep him from getting inside, many of them don't make any effort to keep him from Clinching

WARD CAN ONLY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WHAT YOU ALLOW HIM TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF! If your ****** enough to let him get inside your chess and like Green just lean back on the ropes and let him tear into you...WTF should Ward do, stop in the middle of his attack and say "HEY WAIT A MINUTE...THIS IS NOT EXCITING ENOUGH...LET ME BACK OFF AND LET MY OPPONENT HIT ME A FEW TIMES SO THIS CAN BE ENTERTAINING"

I personally thought that Dirrell vs Ward would have been good because Dirrell has the skills and speed to keep Ward at a distance which would eliminate the Clinches and would probably force Ward to change things up

BOTTOM LINE...IT TAKES TWO FIGHTERS TO PUT ON A GREAT FIGHT...NOT ONE, why don't these fighters FORCE WARD TO CHANGE THINGS UP...BECAUSE THEY CAN'T, a lot of these guys can't fight inside, they have no defense and they have HORRIBLE FOOTWORK...yeah SHAME ON YOU WARD FOR TAKING ADVANTAGE OF YOUR OPPONENTS WEAKNESSES lol

[KnockUTheFukOut]

But don't you think that Ward would like to get some PPVs? I mean yeah of course that winning must be his top priority, but we're talking about big money here, and I'm sure that Ward wants to get as much money as possible.

sure he does but guess what, if he starts changing his style up and doing stuff he is not comfortable doing and he starts losing then guess what...HE WON'T GET IT LIKE THAT EITHER!

When was the last time an EXCITING LOSER was a PPV DRAW? lol Ward just have to win this Tournament then that pretty much will set the foundation for his CAREER...again a fight with BUTE is already considered a BIG MATCH!

Just like Oscar, just like Ray Leonard...Ward was a GOLD MEDAL WINNER, it is an advantage when your are a US Gold Medal Winner

[vacon04]

sure he does but guess what, if he starts changing his style up and doing stuff he is not comfortable doing and he starts losing then guess what...HE WON'T GET IT LIKE THAT EITHER!

When was the last time an EXCITING LOSER was a PPV DRAW? lol Ward just have to win this Tournament then that pretty much will set the foundation for his CAREER...again a fight with BUTE is already considered a BIG MATCH!

Just like Oscar, just like Ray Leonard...Ward was a GOLD MEDAL WINNER, it is an advantage when your are a US Gold Medal Winner

So you're basically saying "keep winning, be boring, and in some miraculous way you'll eventually be great in boxing, which is in fact a sport AND an entertainment business. There is a great difference between Oscar/Ray Leonard and Ward ... They were exciting to watch, man people wanted to see them, but Ward? I don't think so