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Originally posted by Boxing Logic
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This is very true but not /thread because I have a little more to add 
In terms of this article, I didn't even read it because Ward already did a "Brook move" when he fought Paul Smith not to mention Alexander Brand who is a lifetime super middleweight.
What kind of fighter tries to bring up a fighter from the weight class below them, but then demand tuneups first for themselves? Since when does the bigger fighter need tuneups to face someone from the lower division? That is what Ward tried to do with Golovkin.
So let's just talk the facts. What would the fans say if GGG said he was willing to fight Canelo, but only if HBO gave GGG two tuneups first against Joshua Clottey and Jan Zaveck? What if GGG was literally ducking Canelo, and refusing to fight him, until HBO paid him to fight Jan Zaveck and Humberto Soto first to get ready for Canelo?
If GGG demanded that, the backlash he would get would be 100x times what Ward got for actually doing that (LOL!). That just shows the real double standard is not in favor of fighters like GGG, but is actually in favor of fighters like Ward.
The expectations are incredibly low for Ward. No matter how low his career sunk the last five years, there were still some fans defending him, still some keeping him #2 on their pound for pound lists.
This man went four or five years without even TRYING to fight one top opponent. He apparently sued his own promoter for no other reason I can think of except for his promoter had set up the Super 6 for him to win and become a "star," and now his promoter wanted him to actually take the star fights, the PPV fights, against the top opponents, to start making bank, at least that's what would make sense and that was the sense people were getting at the time. But Ward it seems wanted to be able to pick his own opponents, not the top ones. Except then even after Goosen, he tried to pull that with HBO, and they said they wouldn't go for it even with Roc Nation promoting him, and sent him to BET.
So Ward was the epitome of everything wrong with the sport during this time, and some fans still defended him. If GGG sued his promoter x times, lost every time, used it as an excuse to duck Jacobs, Canelo, Saunders, and Quillin for the next four years, boxing fans would never let him live it down. But when it comes to fighters like Ward and Floyd, there seems to be a double standard that says they can do no wrong. That the same standards don't apply to them as everyone else.
Even now he's fighting Kovalev since HBO said he had to fight Kovalev or GGG if he wanted a contract with them, make no mistake, there's a reason he wouldn't fight Stevenson before. Obviously Kovalev is not an easy fight or Ward would have pushed for it before HBO demanded it, but as much as I expect Kovalev to win, you can bet Ward looked at Kovalev out of all the top guys and said a european fighter without great hand speed... I can beat those guys. But a slick southpaw in Stevenson with just as much speed as Ward, and a bazooka for a left hand? He will never fight Stevenson. If he wouldn't fight Bute, you can bet he won't fight Stevenson lol. I knew from the moment Kovalev and Stevenson came on the scene that if Ward had to fight one or the other, he would choose Kovalev.
That's the double standard. Ward can pick and choose styles he likes within his own weight class, 175 (because even at 168 he was a "scaled down light heavyweight" according to his trainer, so 175 is natural for him), but GGG is expected to fight everyone in his weight class, and he does. No offense to AB but GGG is the real can man. Anyone can get it. They may not want it with GGG, but he will fight anyone. With Ward it just doesn't seem to work that way, as Yvon Michel alluded to earlier.
In terms of this article, I didn't even read it because Ward already did a "Brook move" when he fought Paul Smith not to mention Alexander Brand who is a lifetime super middleweight.
What kind of fighter tries to bring up a fighter from the weight class below them, but then demand tuneups first for themselves? Since when does the bigger fighter need tuneups to face someone from the lower division? That is what Ward tried to do with Golovkin.
So let's just talk the facts. What would the fans say if GGG said he was willing to fight Canelo, but only if HBO gave GGG two tuneups first against Joshua Clottey and Jan Zaveck? What if GGG was literally ducking Canelo, and refusing to fight him, until HBO paid him to fight Jan Zaveck and Humberto Soto first to get ready for Canelo?
If GGG demanded that, the backlash he would get would be 100x times what Ward got for actually doing that (LOL!). That just shows the real double standard is not in favor of fighters like GGG, but is actually in favor of fighters like Ward.
The expectations are incredibly low for Ward. No matter how low his career sunk the last five years, there were still some fans defending him, still some keeping him #2 on their pound for pound lists.
This man went four or five years without even TRYING to fight one top opponent. He apparently sued his own promoter for no other reason I can think of except for his promoter had set up the Super 6 for him to win and become a "star," and now his promoter wanted him to actually take the star fights, the PPV fights, against the top opponents, to start making bank, at least that's what would make sense and that was the sense people were getting at the time. But Ward it seems wanted to be able to pick his own opponents, not the top ones. Except then even after Goosen, he tried to pull that with HBO, and they said they wouldn't go for it even with Roc Nation promoting him, and sent him to BET.
So Ward was the epitome of everything wrong with the sport during this time, and some fans still defended him. If GGG sued his promoter x times, lost every time, used it as an excuse to duck Jacobs, Canelo, Saunders, and Quillin for the next four years, boxing fans would never let him live it down. But when it comes to fighters like Ward and Floyd, there seems to be a double standard that says they can do no wrong. That the same standards don't apply to them as everyone else.
Even now he's fighting Kovalev since HBO said he had to fight Kovalev or GGG if he wanted a contract with them, make no mistake, there's a reason he wouldn't fight Stevenson before. Obviously Kovalev is not an easy fight or Ward would have pushed for it before HBO demanded it, but as much as I expect Kovalev to win, you can bet Ward looked at Kovalev out of all the top guys and said a european fighter without great hand speed... I can beat those guys. But a slick southpaw in Stevenson with just as much speed as Ward, and a bazooka for a left hand? He will never fight Stevenson. If he wouldn't fight Bute, you can bet he won't fight Stevenson lol. I knew from the moment Kovalev and Stevenson came on the scene that if Ward had to fight one or the other, he would choose Kovalev.
That's the double standard. Ward can pick and choose styles he likes within his own weight class, 175 (because even at 168 he was a "scaled down light heavyweight" according to his trainer, so 175 is natural for him), but GGG is expected to fight everyone in his weight class, and he does. No offense to AB but GGG is the real can man. Anyone can get it. They may not want it with GGG, but he will fight anyone. With Ward it just doesn't seem to work that way, as Yvon Michel alluded to earlier.
The lil'g brigade will fade in two years along with #48 bandwagoners. I say Lomachenko is the next figure after Golovkin
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