Pound for pound: Is the ward v kovalev fight being overrated a bit?

[Redd Foxx]

"The only boxer I like didn't do shyt this year so I'm going to do my best to ruin boxing for everyone else." (paraphrased) -BigDramaBaby

[1hourRun]

Are people getting caught up in the hype of the fight and overexaggerating the status of the winner?
Dont get me wrong both of these guys are top fighters and can see this thread getting a lot of flak. Im a big fan of kovalev too and im certainly not meaning to discredit him. But why is this fight being called 'pound for pound' etc? I must have missed the part where wards been beating top opposition at LHW in the last few years, and even kovalev to some extent hasnt fought amazing fighters, so why are they automatically, without question, seen as p4p number 1?
Are what these guys doing recently, really much more impressive than what the winner of lomachenko v walters will have achieved in the past few years? A fight which noones mentioning in a p4p sense, and to be honest a fight that noone seems to be mentioning much at all.
Because if lomachenko wins he will have walters and russell jr on his cv, if walters wins he has lomachenko, a demolition job of donaire, and darchinyan on his resume. Both prospective records are very impressive to me
Unless its mega one sided in ward/kovalev, i still dont think there is a clear P4P number 1 in the sport at the moment, theres a few arguments to be made for a number of fighters being number 1, i dont think this fight necessarily answers the question definitively. What do people think?

I'm actually agreeing with you...you finally made a good argument. I'm not getting into it tho, I'm tired of telling people the same.

[Lester Tutor]

tell me about it, the guys done nothing in 5 years and people seem to think he has some entitlement to p4p throne once he beats an elite opponent. As if theres no other boxers presently who have beaten elite opponents this year

"the man who beat the man..."

The man who beat the man and didn't do "anything" for "5 years."

#48ism

[MPX309]

yep, he is going for troll of the year

I admit there is a case for Gonzalez to remain #1, But that's not what's been adressed by TS. He replied to me the other week when I said something in one of this threads and his response was something along the lines of "Why do Ward lovers always gotta play him the victim"

Ain't nobody playing him the victim, most of us here are just bored of these threads.

[LoadedWraps]

Are people getting caught up in the hype of the fight and overexaggerating the status of the winner?
Dont get me wrong both of these guys are top fighters and can see this thread getting a lot of flak. Im a big fan of kovalev too and im certainly not meaning to discredit him. But why is this fight being called 'pound for pound' etc? I must have missed the part where wards been beating top opposition at LHW in the last few years, and even kovalev to some extent hasnt fought amazing fighters, so why are they automatically, without question, seen as p4p number 1?
Are what these guys doing recently, really much more impressive than what the winner of lomachenko v walters will have achieved in the past few years? A fight which noones mentioning in a p4p sense, and to be honest a fight that noone seems to be mentioning much at all.
Because if lomachenko wins he will have walters and russell jr on his cv, if walters wins he has lomachenko, a demolition job of donaire, and darchinyan on his resume. Both prospective records are very impressive to me
Unless its mega one sided in ward/kovalev, i still dont think there is a clear P4P number 1 in the sport at the moment, theres a few arguments to be made for a number of fighters being number 1, i dont think this fight necessarily answers the question definitively. What do people think?

No, it's not overrated.

Yes, the winner will be unanimously p4p king.

Yes, it will be clear after that fight who is #1.

No, there won't be a valid argument for anyone else.

Yes, this fight answers the question definitively.

[R_Walken]

No because I think the winner is #1 P4P

But I do think Kovalev is over rated

[j0zef]

While I do think that winner of this fight is a clear Top2 P4P (depending on how close it is, I may keep Roman at #1), I agree that both Ward and Kovalev are overrated.

Kovalev's resume is extremely overrated. His best win was 49 years old and his 2nd best win lost to the same 49 year old. Kovalev is a great fighter, and he passes the eye test, but his resume gets exaggerated as if he's Roberto Duran.

Ward is an enigma at this stage of his career. While I can make decent argument that his resume is overrated (Froch got outboxed by Groves and Dirrell, Kessler was already beaten by Joe, and that fight got stopped on headbutts, Abraham basically never done anything).
The bigger issue that we don't know how good Ward is due to the quality of his recent opposition and the layoff. I'm concerned with his inability to even come close to putting Brand away. Not only does that question his power, but his accuracy as well.
The other big question (for me) is his durability. Sullivan Barrera looked slow as molasses compared to Ward, landed less than 20% of punches, virtually all of them jabs. Yet Ward looked much worse for the wear after the fight, here's a pic:



To summarize, while I disagree with you in the importance of the fight for the P4P ranking, your question is definitely valid.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

No...

This is literally the best fight to make in all of boxing... 2 contrasting styles.. both in their prime.. this fight is underhyped in my opinion

[bojangles1987]

No...

This is literally the best fight to make in all of boxing... 2 contrasting styles.. both in their prime.. this fight is underhyped in my opinion

Agreed, and it's a testament to the sad state of boxing. This is a fight between two prime fighters that will in most eyes determine the p4p #1. It is even in a heavy division people pay attention to. Yet despite their abilities and accomplishments neither guy is a star and the fight's going relatively unnoticed.

It really sucks.

[SkillspayBills]

You have an irrational Ward hatred that's bordering on Spoonesque. You should be on suicide watch after he beats Kovalev.