Comments Thread For: Andre Ward Relinquishes The WBC Emeritus Title

[New England]

IMO Ward beats Froch anywhere on the planet. He beat him once despite a broken hand. The scores in that fight did not, IMO, reveal the real story. Ward won easy.

However given the closeness of the scores, then it's clear that there's something about Froch that the judges like. Maybe those judges would have scored a round or two more more for Froch had the fight been in England and then you'd have had another winner.

But it's primarily the Kessler fight that bugs me. Clinching 88 times and delivering 5 headbutts without even a single caution is appauling. On top of that it was Kessler who was told he was about to be DQ'ed by the inept referee.

Now you may think that that didn't make a difference, but surely you can see where I'm coming from.

kessler initiated a lot of the clinches in the ward fight himself, if memory serves right, especially toward the end. to be fair he was having trouble seeing, but he did plenty of holding. i didn't think the headbutts were targeted specifically, or done with intent, but ward does have his head over his front feet in close. ward wasn't doing anything to stop the butts, but the contact was accidental in my opinion. evander holyfield would make moves to butt. ward doesn't do that. i have not seen it in a while, and probably fewer times than you have, my friend . ward is not a squeaky clean fighter, but i don't think his actions that you pointed out were what won him the fights, or enough to warrant point deductions or dq's

[richardt]

To me, Ward has fought the very best and I don't care if it is 2 doors down from his current address or in bum***ed Egypt as long as he fights the best and was not given a hometown decision and thats the botton line.

[yoz]

There's no way the butts on Kessler were unintentional. Not a chance. They were planned.

I like Ward, and i'm sure he could have outboxed Kessler without resorting to dirty tactics, but that fight still doesn't sit comfortably. IMO, Ward should have been DQ.

[BattlingNelson]

kessler initiated a lot of the clinches in the ward fight himself, if memory serves right, especially toward the end. to be fair he was having trouble seeing, but he did plenty of holding. i didn't think the headbutts were targeted specifically, or done with intent, but ward does have his head over his front feet in close. ward wasn't doing anything to stop the butts, but the contact was accidental in my opinion. evander holyfield would make moves to butt. ward doesn't do that. i have not seen it in a while, and probably fewer times than you have, my friend . ward is not a squeaky clean fighter, but i don't think his actions that you pointed out were what won him the fights, or enough to warrant point deductions or dq's

Of course those headbutts was part of Ward's gameplan along with the spoiling tactics of clinching. Thinking otherwise is foolish. Ward was leading with his head and tying Kessler up to crack open his face and jam the rythm. Kessler has fought many southpaws and this has never been a problem before. Only with Ward.

Those tactics would ONLY Work in jOakland. Anywhere else he'd have points deductions and ultimately a DQ if he wouldn't change his way.

[Ravens Fan]

kessler initiated a lot of the clinches in the ward fight himself, if memory serves right, especially toward the end. to be fair he was having trouble seeing, but he did plenty of holding. i didn't think the headbutts were targeted specifically, or done with intent, but ward does have his head over his front feet in close. ward wasn't doing anything to stop the butts, but the contact was accidental in my opinion. evander holyfield would make moves to butt. ward doesn't do that. i have not seen it in a while, and probably fewer times than you have, my friend . ward is not a squeaky clean fighter, but i don't think his actions that you pointed out were what won him the fights, or enough to warrant point deductions or dq's

I just re-watched the fight and your memory is in fact correct. Because it was Kessler that initiated most of the clinches. Ward was also the one throwing punches while in the clinches while Kessler looked rather frustrated. The ref also called out Kessler's name more so than Wards when he told them to break. Simply because it was pretty obvious who was doing most of the clinching.

As far as the head butts are concerned I only saw one really bad one and I am still not convinced ward did it on purpose. Simply because he was winning the fight easily and it really served no purpose. With that said I would have had no problem if the ref took a point from Ward for the one head butt.

However, at the end of the day it would have made little to no difference in the how the fight was scored. And just to make it clear I have always liked Kessler and consider myself a fan.