Comments Thread For: Andre Ward vs. Alexander Brand, August 6th at Oracle Arena

[kafkod]

SMH.

Another elite-level boxer in a farcical mismatch. This sort of thing seems to be happening more and more often these days. It really sucks when guys with such talent don't go outside their comfort zones and mix it up with genuinely dangerous opponents.

One thing that worries me about this fight, besides it being a pointless mismatch, is that it's really not a good tune-up fight for Ward before he goes on to face Kovalev. Surely he could do with fighting somebody who would be more a challenge to sharpen him up? It makes me worry that he has no intention of actually going through with the Kovalev fight and will pull out citing an injury or something.

I really hope that I'm wrong. Time will tell.

I feel the same way myself. I'm finding it hard to imagine Ward going from Smith, Barerra and Brand level opponents to Kovalev 3 months later.

I can't help thinking there is some kind of scam going on.

[soul_survivor]

Sorry but NO. As bad as Ward's opposition has been, Bumlovkin's has been as bad or WORSE. Hell, I'd consider Barrera as better than Bumlovkin's last 4 opponents..

Ward's run since beating a drained Dawson is: Rodriguez, journeyman Smith who took Ward 9 rounds (domestic opponents got rid of him, at a better weight, far quicker), Barrera (who?) and now Brand.

In that same time frame, GGGs best opponents have been Murray, Geale, Macklin and Lem. All were legitimate world level middleweights AND 2 were current or former champs, you can say Murray and Macklin were champs too who got robbed v Sturm. GGG annihilated almost all of them.

You have to be stretching real bad to say Ward is better in terms of opponents faced. Even GGGs second tier opponents are better than Barrera nd Smith and Rodriguez.

Worst part is, I'm not even the biggest GGG fan around but let's be real here.

[MDPopescu]

Seems like a fine stay busy fight. I'd have rather seen another Barrera caliber guy or better, but without looking at what the top ten is doing its hard to say how reasonable or unreasonable that would have been to put together.

HBO showing this or Jay Z bout to have to show this on VH1?

We have a bet according to which I say that Ward doesn't fight Kovalev in 2016... It's about 1 quint... You asked me if I agree to upgrade it to 5 quint and I agreed, but you didn't answer me that it's settled for 5 quint... So: I maintain that, for whatever reasons, Ward doesn't fight Kovalev in 2016 ("no contest" included)... Well?

Bets with other posters here are welcomed as well...

[Mr.Fantastic]

It's Mr. Fantastic. His existence on this forum solely to race bait. He's incapable of talking boxing without race baiting.

You're absolutely wrong there. Most of you dudes are boxer fans for a reason. This place has less than %5 real boxing fans. It's even worse in other places.

[kiaba360]

A skippable stay-busy, but at least he's actually staying busy lol

[El-blanco]

Considering he's fighting Kovalev he can do whatever he wants. His fight with Kovalev eclipses what most top guys have done in their entire career.

[Mitchell Kane]

Kovalev-Ward can't happen soon enough.

[Kigali]

I hate getting dragged into this ****ty argument but in those 4 years GGG has faced and annihilated better opponents than Ward has had boring fights with.

Bullshi.t............

[kafkod]

Sorry but NO. As bad as Ward's opposition has been, Bumlovkin's has been as bad or WORSE. Hell, I'd consider Barrera as better than Bumlovkin's last 4 opponents..

Of course you would. You're a biased Golovkin hater.

[Kigali]

A skippable stay-busy, but at least he's actually staying busy lol

That's what they say when GGG fights a no-hoper.