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Ward is one of the most entertaining fighters.
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I ended up liking him because he turned out to have grit that went deeper than the pretty boy image. That's a stigma that sucks to live with. Guys assume you're soft and don't give you respect because you look a certain way. Oscar went to war and earned that respect.
Then, of course, he lost it years later but I digress...
Man, I've been running off topic lately. I'll have to look at this thread title again to see what it was even about.Comment
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Aw man. I wish I'd seen his fights with Welcome. They were great. I always liked McKinney. Straight, stand up boxer. His fight with Barrera put Barrera on the map in HBO's first boxing after dark card. Saw that when it happened. Was a great night.Comment
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And that low punch output with a low connect ratio is another reason why Ward should have lost the fight.
Ward postures up tries to be slick but he isn't that type of fighter at all, his best work came in the last half of the fight a moment of time when Kovalev always begins to slow down it wasn't those mythical body shots that some were hitting off the hip etc we've seen Kovalev get tired before lol...
Ward is actually worse than Wladimir Klitschko for me because we know Ward has a good bit of talent but he is linear just like Wladimir he can only fight his fight and If he doesn't have his way it's constant running, posturing up moving, doing nothing he literally wouldn't throw a straight hand power punch at Kovalev after being countered in the second the first time he tried it what does that say to you?Comment
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Haha, it's cool, man. He did have grit for sure. I'm not knocking him. Like you, I was turned off by the initial image. A lot of it was the first Chavez fight. We had the pretty boy vs the grittiest Mexican fighter ever at the time or so I thought and I had to go with Julio even though it was a long shot. I grew up in the 80s but didn't start watching until around '93. So I really saw Julio's downslide instead of his rise. I did see pretty much all of Oscar's career. I didn't like him at all at first and then he kept going. I really didn't like him in the Trinidad fight because I was a huge Trinidad fan. I expected a war and we didn't get that, but when Oscar fought Mosley, my respect went up. He fought very well in those fights. He beat Vargas's a$$ big time which I enjoyed. And of course, Mayorga. His early total destruction of Jesse James Leija was impressive due to how he really ran right over him, even though everyone knew he would win. And he did that with a lot of guys in his day, made former champions look ordinary. He crushed Rafael Ruelas, although I always wondered how Gabriel would have done against him since he seemed to be the more solid Ruelas brother before the Garcia fight. His fight with Quartey was epic as well. Oscar gave us a lot of great moments.Comment
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That's one excellent observation. I think he's like Wlad like you say. Very much a control freak. They even mentioned this on the build up I believe. He wants everything exactly his way. Nothing wrong with that but it's not always good in a boxing ring. You have to be able to bounce back. And in the eyes of many he did, but I wasn't sold. Of course, that debate will rage on from here on out. A more definite statement by either in the rematch will likely put an end to most of the controversy. That's what I look forward to, but, it will be many months before we see it. I've got it way on the back burner with Loma-Walters up front now. Gonna be great Saturday!Comment
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Oh they didn't have a leg to stand on in that one. Clear domination all the way. But you know. Hopkins was old and expendable. He had no "0" to protect.Comment
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