Andre Ward is a lying coward

[Vasyl’s dad]

Froch didn't matter? Abraham didn't matter? Kessler didn't matter? Dawson who was P4P didn't matter? Just be honest.

Peter Nelson who runs HBO boxing has said he's okay with Golovkin fighting these guys as long as the fans support him. You guys are propping up a coward.

Only Froch mattered. When Joe beat Kessler, Kessler was dismissed as an easy pick for Joe. Dawson wasn't allowed to fight at his best weight because Ward held him to his word that he could beat him at 168 even though everyone else knew it was dumb for him to go down. Dawson realized it was dumb and even requested a compromise which Ward refused. Abraham was alright but nothing special. Lets not forget, nobody looked at the 168 division as anything special until Ward won Super Six then, it suddenly became the best division ever. Go figure.

[krazyn8tive]

I think that guy is pigeons' alt. I wouldn't bother with him.

Good lookin

[billeau2]

Bute was seen as a real threat to Ward after the super 6. And despite being offered big money to fight him, Ward refused to do it.

Bute was favourite to beat Froch, even in the UK. Only one other SMW would have been favourite to beat The Cobra in his own backyard, and that was Andre Ward.

You can't say Ward cleaned out SMW when there was an undefeated world champion calling him out and being ignored.

neither being a world champion, nor being undefeated in and of itself means very much. The purpose of the tournament was to decide who was the best in the division at the time, therefore the winner of the tournament was the best...I won't use semantics, if you don't consider that cleaning out a "wrap" and if you don't also consider the subsequent performance of Bute evidence that this "determination" was accurate regarding the best...well, so be it. Your argument is akin to saying Floyd ducked margarito.

At the end of the day alphabet soup, undefeated records against b level comp, do not hold water when compared to an event that has the best fighters at that weight class competing.

I consider this cleaning out the division. Otherwise, there will always be another guy who claims they should get a fight. If Bute was that good you might have a point, he lost to guys who are obviously a step up.

[billeau2]

There is something wrong with him. The fact that he can't close a simple deal with Barrera (along with everything else the past couple of years) sends out a bright red flag.

Im beggining to think so myself Scott...its infuriating. I can hang with a guy wanting to be a home boy...why not entitle the people of Oakland to a champion who fights out of their back yard...Oakland has a real history of hardscrabble types fighting away...Billy martin for example!

I can even see him staying at a weight class and ruling the roost, but hes really doing some things that don't make dollars and certainly don't make sense!

And for the record...I think a healthy ready well trained Ward starches Barrera.

[billeau2]

Just to emphasise: BUTE

bwahahahaha

Please name one area in which Bute is remotely in the same league as Ward

The guy was the quintessential paper chump

Ward's relationship with Goossen deteriorated to the extent that he wouldn't fight anyone but to suggest that he ducked a guy that literally would not have had a prayer of beating him is just ridiculous

I think a lot of people, otherwise astute observers, like Kafkod for example, see the undefeated record and the belt and forget that every other guy is a champ these days! The belts amount to about as much as Charlie Z's belt... And when you see a guy who steps up and cannot win (Degale, Froch) it tells you that the guy was never at that level...

Some will counter that styles make fights....What on God's sacred Earth could bute hope to do to Ward?

[BrometheusBob.]

Its because Ward is Irish.

I know right smfh

[BrometheusBob.]

I'm telling you guys. He's not fighting Kovalev this year or maybe ever. If he does, it's in 2017 or 2018.

I hope you're prepared with excuses for when Ward totally exposes the "Krusher" later this year

[Hougigo]

While Ward is a diva in his own right... I think it's Roc nation too...because weren't the contracts for Canelo/Cotto unsigned to the day of the fight?

Not like they'd have trouble with Paul Smith or Geale

[billeau2]

Exactly, these people use hindsight to lend legitness to their weak ass argument for ward lmfao.

Sorry but sometimes a fighter gets it right on who gets a legitimate crack. Floyd got accused of ducking Margarito for much the same reasons and Margarito was exposed.

its not a question of ward resting on his laurels and thats what people like you fail to see. A judgement was made about the best fighters in the division and regarding Bute, it turned out to be correct. There is nothing in Bute's approach that suggests he could hit Ward. The people who propped him up were wrong and apparently some people knew this because of Bute's subsequent performance and thats what people fail to see.

If Bute had beat A level comp then maybe someone would have had to say that the best fighters were not in the tourney, but thats not what happened.

Frankly margarito with his size and approach was a lot more of a threat to Floyd than Bute to Ward, but in neither case can ducking be considered an issue.

[kafkod]

neither being a world champion, nor being undefeated in and of itself means very much. The purpose of the tournament was to decide who was the best in the division at the time, therefore the winner of the tournament was the best...I won't use semantics, if you don't consider that cleaning out a "wrap" and if you don't also consider the subsequent performance of Bute evidence that this "determination" was accurate regarding the best...well, so be it. Your argument is akin to saying Floyd ducked margarito.

At the end of the day alphabet soup, undefeated records against b level comp, do not hold water when compared to an event that has the best fighters at that weight class competing.

I consider this cleaning out the division. Otherwise, there will always be another guy who claims they should get a fight. If Bute was that good you might have a point, he lost to guys who are obviously a step up.

You clean out a division by fighting and beating the top ranked fighters in that division YOURSELF.

You DON'T clean out a division by refusing to fight an undefeated world champion ranked No1 or No2 in that division and waiting till somebody else beats him for you.

Ward didn't unify all the belts at SMW and he turned down a career highest offer to unify against Bute.

What happened to Bute years down the line doesn't alter that fact.

Edit: Bute wasn't left out of the super 6 because the organisers didn't think he was one of the best in the division. They tried to get him to take part but he wasn't interested in doing it.