Can Ward beat any of the Cruiserweight title holders?

[soul_survivor]

Which one of them can he beat?

Olyksandr Usyk - #1 ranked and WBO champ - 12-0 with 10KO's. 30 years old

Murat Gassiev - #2 ranked and IBF champ - 24-0 w/ 17KO's. 23 years old.

Mairis Breidis - #4 ranked and WBC champ - 22-0 w/ 18KO's. 32 years old.

Denis Lebedev - #5 ranked and WBA champ 29-3 w/ 22KO's. 37 years old.

Lebedev is the oldest and most worn out one there. But I think Breidis would be the best match.

Lebedev is almost shot so maybe but it depends on the weight. I guarantee you ward will ask for a catchweight.

[Citizen Koba]

Not sure anyone with a V or a K in thier name can beat Ward @175-Cruiser

Bellew and Breidis might have his number then?

[Mr Objecitivity]

Oleksandr Usyk looks like he hydrates way above 200 pounds. I doubt Ward could even hurt Usyk with punches that he is aware of. Usyk would probably box his head off and then stop him in the late rounds after taking Ward's best punches.

Oleksandr Usyk is no Sergey Kovalev. Oleksandr Usyk is much heavier, with a significantly longer reach, is taller, rangier and even more powerful.

Ward and Kovalev were roughly the same size. This isn't the case with Ward and Usyk where Usyk out sizes him by a significant margin.

[dan_cov]

Highly doubt he'd beat any of them. I'd probably give him the best shot of beating Breidis out the four.

[-Kev-]

Highly doubt he'd beat any of them.

I know this is ironic because this is Ward, a LHW, we're talking about, but I think these CW guys are being a bit overrated. Ward beats them, and not just barely, but I think he wins fairly comfortably from what i've seen of them.

[BigZ44]

Ward vs Lebedev would be bad ass and a toss up imo. Don't like Wards chances in any of the other matchups. If Shumenov still had a belt, that would have been easy work for Ward

[NEETzsche]

I know this is ironic because this is Ward, a LHW, we're talking about, but I think these CW guys are being a bit overrated. Ward beats them, and not just barely, but I think he wins fairly comfortably from what i've seen of them.

He's a much better fighter pound-for-pound but the jump from LHW to CW is not a normal weight jump. 7 lbs from SMW to LHW but 25 lbs from LHW to CW. You'd have to assume that every punch landed by a fully fledged cruiser would rattle Ward. That said, he'd probably be really, really fast in comparison to them

[Cutthroat]

Oleksandr Usyk looks like he hydrates way above 200 pounds. I doubt Ward could even hurt Usyk with punches that he is aware of. Usyk would probably box his head off and then stop him in the late rounds after taking Ward's best punches.

Oleksandr Usyk is no Sergey Kovalev. Oleksandr Usyk is much heavier, with a significantly longer reach, is taller, rangier and even more powerful.

Ward and Kovalev were roughly the same size. This isn't the case with Ward and Usyk where Usyk out sizes him by a significant margin.

He could barely outbox the African. He's not a harder hitter than Kovalev either, nor does he possess the accuracy.

We've seen RJJ go 10 with a prime Lebedev, Miranda go a full 12 with Dorticos, Bellew defeating top 10 cruisers and stopping guys never stopped, Vlasov having success etc. Cruiser is not a great division.

[-Kev-]

He's a much better fighter pound-for-pound but the jump from LHW to CW is not a normal weight jump. 7 lbs from SMW to LHW but 25 lbs from LHW to CW. You'd have to assume that every punch landed by a fully fledged cruiser would rattle Ward. That said, he'd probably be really, really fast in comparison to them

That was pretty much the selling point of Jones vs Ruiz though, the power of a HW. It's like, yeah Jones is better than him P4P, but can he take all of his punches? What will happen if Ruiz lands a punch? Ohh man so exciting!

While Ward is not Jones in terms of reflexes and elusiveness, these guys look very slow and often times sloppy. Usyk could one day be a lot better (he's already 30, no spring chicken), but right now from what i've seen of him, and as small as Ward would be 25lbs north, I think he takes him in at least an 8-4 fight.

I think Ward vs Bellew, if that fight gets done, will make it more believable, that Ward can beat one of those titleholders.

[Mr Objecitivity]

He could barely outbox the African. He's not a harder hitter than Kovalev either, nor does he possess the accuracy.

We've seen RJJ go 10 with a prime Lebedev, Miranda go a full 12 with Dorticos, Bellew defeating top 10 cruisers and stopping guys never stopped, Vlasov having success etc. Cruiser is not a great division.

Oleksandr beat Mchunu in practically every department. In fact, Usyk beat Mchunu much more convincingly than Ward beat Kovalev.

Furthermore, Mchunu is a proven cruiserweight with many feats in that division. On the other hand, Ward has 0 feats at cruiserweight. So there is absolutely no reason to assume by default that Ward will be as good as a cruiserweight with the added weight as he has been below cruiserweight.

So as it stands, Mchuni is a BETTER CRUISERWEIGHT than Andre Ward. Thus, him giving Usyk slight difficulties is no direct evidence that a naturally skilled sub -cruiserweight would also be able to do the same.

As far as Usyk's comparisons to Kovalev, Usyk is knocking out opponents MUCH heavier than the average knockout victims of Kovalev. So just based on that, Usyk is a more proven OVERALL power puncher than Kovalev. However, one might argue Kovalev is a harder puncher P4P (which is a different case). So Ward getting punched by Usyk would likely inflict greater damage than getting punched by Kovalev.

Also, Usyk is definitely very accurate. He is a superior combination puncher than Kovalev and has superior footwork.

Tony Bellew is a natural cruiserweight who boiled down to compete at light heavyweight. So his success isn't evidence of cruiserweight not being good.

If the cruiserweight division was so weak, why aren't more of the top light heavyweights moving up to cruiserweight and becoming champions there? A boxer should go the heaviest division possible that he is able to win and compete well at. So why did Ward move up to light heavyweight instead of making the direct jump to cruiserweight if he was so good that he could beat top cruiserweights like Usyk? It's most likely because he wouldn't be as competent against cruiserweights due to his lack of size.