Comments Thread For: Andre Ward: They Pressure Me To Move Up, Not Others

[Cuban Linx]

Well he's part right, but one of things he's not mentioning is that he didn't have much of a choice as he's cleared out his division and has run out of options...

Most of the top guys are with Haymon : Dirrell Brothers, Degale, Badou Jack so those fights aren't happening. Abraham isn't leaving Germany, and Ramirez is being protected by Arum. So who's left? Blake Caparello? Porky Medina? There are more options for him at 175, like Kovalev, Pascal, Gonzalez. He beats Kovalev then maybe he can try and negotiate a big money fight with Stevenson in 2017(if he's still champ).

In regards to Golovkin, the fact that he has two potential unification fights available to him gives him an excuse to stay at 160 especially since the other champions aren't tied to some promotional company who won't work with HBO. You better believe his team is going to make sure he gets those fights before he moves up. But let's say Golovkin does become undisputed champion, the fans will eventually pressure him to move up too. Golovkin won't be able to stay at 160 for his whole career without facing some backlash.

[Robbie Barrett]

Of course they do. People want Ward as far away from the hype job as possible, they know that's a guaranteed loss if it happened.

[Mr. Philadel]

Ward should just move on and focus on Krusher....everybody with a functional brain knows the machine kept him away from little g and the machine will continue to do so because little g is their guy!!....that's the type of **** the average joe blow boxing fan don't see but ain't **** average about the fans here lol.....I said it the other day, I can't remember where I heard this, but some powerful people in the sport don't like Ward

[petegrif]

I have followed Ward since his Olympic days. He is a phenomenal talent. To be as good as he is you have to have enormous character in the ring. Sadly, his character in the ring is not matched by his character outside the ring. As a longstanding fan I have been forced to the painful realization that he is just way too entitled for his own good. I don't pretend to understand exactly what it is that drives his adolescent spoiled behavior. A lot of the time he just sounds flat out jealous the to acclaim that other fighter get when he knows (and he's almost certainly right) that they're not as good as him. But here's the problem - he had an easy ride to the top with the Super Six which took a huge amount of boxing politics off his plate, the kind of politics that can paralyze the career of fighters who are too good for their own good so champions avoid them. Since then he has spent more time fighting his promoter than opponents. And for all his good two shoes SOG persona, he spends a helluva lot of time dissing others. To cap all of that he barely fights outside of Oakland, can't sell out his home town, makes statements about how he doesn't care what others think about who he chooses to fight and just generally whining.

I want to get the GGG situation on the table. There are plenty of GGG haters out there. I have no idea why. This is a guy with a great Olympic record, from a god forsaken part of the world who got locked into a crap pro contract with a crap european promoter, was avoided by fighters like Stern and Martinez and whose career only took off after he got out from the contract. He is a very skillful entertaining fighter. He appears to be a great guy. Always polite and respectful of other fighters. Grateful to his fans. He fights anyone that will get in the ring with him three times a year and he knocks the guys out in entertaining fights. Great fighters, who know way more than us, and highly experienced trainers, say he's the real deal. So... What's not to like? If your a boxing fan I truly have no idea. Q. why are I raising the GGG situation in a Ward thread. A. Because there seem to be a lot of diehard Ward fans, who aren't bothered by his behavior seem to hate on this guy more than anyone. Ward, during a period when he was tied up with lawsuits and injuries, kept picking fights with GGG and his team. We can have our own opinions about why - I think he was jealous of the popularity of GGG when he felt he is the better fighter (and may well be) and needed something to keep himself in the news. But when you look at the situation with any logic at all, this is BS. GGG hadn't cleared out his weight division but Ward had years ago.

So can't we just put all this crap behind us once and for all. Ward is super talented, boring to the average viewer who isn't a serious fan, without much of an audience and a pain in the neck. GGG is maybe less talented but way more entertaining to the average fan, with a fast growing audience (disappointing ppv notwithstanding) and a decent guy. Maybe they'll fight one day and maybe they won't. And if they do, Ward may well win. But until that day, especially now Ward has moved up...

...can't we all just get along.

[SlySlickSmooth]

Ward should just move on and focus on Krusher....everybody with a functional brain knows the machine kept him away from little g and the machine will continue to do so because little g is their guy!!....that's the type of **** the average joe blow boxing fan don't see but ain't **** average about the fans here lol.....I said it the other day, I can't remember where I heard this, but some powerful people in the sport don't like Ward

It's because Ward is with Jay-Z now. Roc Nation Illuminati squad!!

[petegrif]

For the immediate future Golovkin will continue to clean out MW. He will however move up. Probably around 2016/7.

One thing to bear in mind is that it is much to his advantage to become undisputed MW champion and to continue to build his fanbase because that gives him negotiating leverage when fighting stars and this isn't just a matter of money. For example, in any fight with Ward the referee is going to matter. The fighters aren't supposed to have much say wrt the ref but they do.

[Eff Pandas]

Yea its just you Ward lol.

At this point in Ward's trajectory he'd be better off to take the Adrien Broner stfu til after the fight approach. I don't give a f#ck about what you did after I got the newly released Iphone 5 back in the day. No one wants to hear about the **** you used to do. This is boxing & fans are like old school Janet Jackson & wanna know wtf you done for me lately. So just f#cking fight bro.

[Ham Porter]

[The plunger man]

Well mr ward if you had come in at 168 in your last fight then you wouldn't need to move up to light heavyweight would you....but 172 is in the light heavyweight division and just 3 below that limit as well......Jesus unreal ....shocking statement

[bluzi]

to be honest he can stay @ 168 but take on the up and coming cometition if he wants , but if he takes all those easy fights he better give his team a mega fight @ the end of it..... its not just the fans/critics who wants him to take hard fights its his own team as well , they are chunking tons of money at him while hoping he is the real deal (and not just a has been) , they are banking on him to be able to win against whoever comes forward , thats how a p4p mega star works (see floyd or manny , they took hard fights and came out even stronger and bigger stars because of that).
Good luck to you ward , stop *****ing and start fighting as the rest said , ill forgive everything say/do if you give us Ward vs Kovalev @ 2016 .