Comments Thread For: Paul Smith: Andre Ward Beats Kovalev By Wide Margin

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Ward fought at his walk around weight in the Olympics, debuted at basically his Olympic weight for his first two pro bouts, spent his next 7 fights at his initial pro weight of 160lbs, before then filling into 168 as a professional (where he's been for 15 of his 18 following fights.

Ward got hit by Darnell Boone with a bomb, but he's continued to fill out his frame and hasn't been damaged by a shot from any fighter since (Boone fight happened at 160 when Ward was all of 6-0).

Think what you want

just because he holds nonstop when he's in the ring with someone dangerous doesn't mean his chin has gotten better but that he's gotten better at cheating.

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Team Kovalev offered $500k plus 25% of the Canadian PPV money (that Beterbiev would be bringing to the table). Beterbiev is in a position where he doesn't need to tolerate a **** deal.

Lock in the official mandatory position and force Main Events to come to the table with a better offer; if the second offer isn't much better, Beterbiev understands that he's still entitled to 25% of whatever the purse bid ends up being (plus additional upside on the fight, a la David Lemieux's vacant IBF title fight, since his camp clearly has the deeper pockets than Duva does).

If Kovalev simply ducks out, he looks like a ***** and Beterbiev-Rodriguez likely gets made for the vacant IBF belt, with Beterbiev controlling the entire pot, putting another star champion in the GYM fold (possibly a star in his native Russia).

boxing is more than simply two guys deciding to throw hands.

and ggg is in a position where he doesn't need ward because he has big ppv fights yet look at the way you say the exact opposite when defending fighters you like. biased crap. talking about ggg's legacy well what about beterbeiv's legacy? i see its about making the most money when its fighters that you like yet when its fighters you don't like you tell them to fight for legacy. hypocrite.

[Scipio2009]

ward said he would be willing to fight anyone at 168 or 175 yet he wouldn't even fight bute, stevenson, or froch 2 while he tried to fight truax, sartison, and zac dunn. your hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Ward said no such thing, because he's not that ******. Bute thought he'd sidestep the gauntlet that was the Super Six tournament and Ward called him on it, Adonis Stevenson had yet to knock off Chad Dawson or even draw much of note before wanting Ward so he left that silliness alone, and Carl Froch (after losing the first fight on the US East Coast, 3,000 miles away from Oakland) wanted to have the rematch of his defeat in his literal hometown of Nottingham.

try harder next time.

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Ward said no such thing, because he's not that ******. Bute thought he'd sidestep the gauntlet that was the Super Six tournament and Ward called him on it, Adonis Stevenson had yet to knock off Chad Dawson or even draw much of note before wanting Ward so he left that silliness alone, and Carl Froch (after losing the first fight on the US East Coast, 3,000 miles away from Oakland) wanted to have the rematch of his defeat in his literal hometown of Nottingham.

try harder next time.

"I am ready to fight the best 168- and 175-pounders that are out there," Ward told ESPN.com

"I'm willing to fight anyone at '68 or '75." -Andre Ward

do you ever get tired of being wrong?

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imagine if andy lee offered ggg a career high payday and ggg turned it down

imagine if cotto offered ggg a career high payday and ggg turned it down

imagine if ward offered to fight ggg at 160 and ward turned it down

and imagine while turning down these fights ggg tried to fight a bunch of unranked guys.

would you defend that? well that's exactly what ward did when he turned down 2 champs in his division and the champ from a division above who was willing to accommodate him at his weight while trying to fight truax and sartison.

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Ward said no such thing, because he's not that ******. Bute thought he'd sidestep the gauntlet that was the Super Six tournament and Ward called him on it, Adonis Stevenson had yet to knock off Chad Dawson or even draw much of note before wanting Ward so he left that silliness alone, and Carl Froch (after losing the first fight on the US East Coast, 3,000 miles away from Oakland) wanted to have the rematch of his defeat in his literal hometown of Nottingham.

try harder next time.

actually stevenson offered him the fight after knocking dawson out. do you ever get tired of making things up and being wrong?

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ward said he would be willing to fight anyone at 168 or 175

Ward said no such thing, because he's not that ******.

"I'm willing to fight anyone at '68 or '75." Ward told ESPN.com

[Scipio2009]

kovalev is ready at 175 and yes ward said he would fight anyone at 175. same exact thing that ggg said you hypocrite. ward even said he would beat klitschko and that he would be a heavyweight by 2013. why aren't you calling out his big claims? because you are biased that's why. ward does the same exact thing as ggg and you ignore it. you also ignore that ward has turned down many top fighters in his own division. something ggg has never done.

The Klitschko comment was an aspirational statement, in the same way that Roy Jones Jr was able to pick off a heavyweight championship, Andre Ward believed that he had it in his ability to pick off a heavyweight title of his own before he hung up the gloves.

Ward already stand 6' and has a 71" reach, so he wouldn't be the biggest guy around, but if he could fill into, at some point, a 210lb frame and keep his athleticism, he'd have a shot to compete (Klitschko/Wilder/Thompson/Joshua/etc are simply too physically big for Ward to really compete, but he'd have a chance against the likes of Amir Mansor/Ruslan Chagaev/Derek Chisora/Andrey Fedosov/Mike Perez/etc). The right fight presents itself, and Ward could fulfill his dream of being heavyweight champion.

Team Golovkin stepped in ****, and now you want to imagine that everyone else stepped in the same ****.

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Ward said no such thing, because he's not that ******. Bute thought he'd sidestep the gauntlet that was the Super Six tournament and Ward called him on it, Adonis Stevenson had yet to knock off Chad Dawson or even draw much of note before wanting Ward so he left that silliness alone, and Carl Froch (after losing the first fight on the US East Coast, 3,000 miles away from Oakland) wanted to have the rematch of his defeat in his literal hometown of Nottingham.

try harder next time.

if trying harder consists of making things up, ignoring facts, ignoring direct quotes, being a hypocrite, and spinning things in such an illogical way then i don't think i will try harder. maybe you shouldn't try as hard?

[Scipio2009]

and ggg is in a position where he doesn't need ward because he has big ppv fights yet look at the way you say the exact opposite when defending fighters you like. biased crap. talking about ggg's legacy well what about beterbeiv's legacy? i see its about making the most money when its fighters that you like yet when its fighters you don't like you tell them to fight for legacy. hypocrite.

What big PPV fights are you talking about?

Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez are fighting on PPV in November; if it's a good fight, regardless of whomever wins, there's likely to be a rematch of the fight, on PPV, in the late spring/early summer. If the other guy wins the fight, depending on the timing of things, you're possibly looking at a late Fall PPV for the third fight.

Andy Lee, WBO 160 champion, is due to fight Billy Joe Saunders late Nov/early December. After that fight gets done, Lee would likely have the options to fight Chris Eubank Jr in the UK or the Jacobs-Quillin winner on the East Coast, in addition to the Golovkin fight (both fights putting him in a better financial position than what K2 is likely to offer after paying Golovkin his fee).

No one is going to pay PPV to see Golovkin fight Tureano Johnson or J.S. Heiland.

Beterbiev will fight for his own boxing legacy but, thanks to Floyd putting everyone onto the game, he's not going to have to get robbed to chase said legacy.

Beterbiev-Barrera is due for the IBF mandatory challenger, and Kovalev is forced to fight his mandatory or lose his title (no other titles to unify for him to duck the fight).

If Kovalev turns chicken**** and bails on the fight, is says more about his own legacy than anything.