Did anyone ever believe Andre Ward was ever on Floyd Mayweather Jr's level or above?

[Lester Tutor]

Pretty Boy Floyd was savage. Proto and Post Floyd are different.

As funny as it may seem, Conor got punked the best way possible. Milking out the hope that Conor would do something...

Ward imo is a beast. He is a guy that will frustrate you on the inside rough. Kovalev didn’t prepare for the pickaboo bulldozing. Ward has his own savage way to break guys down and lay down accurate sharpshooting. Can see why elites would complain.

Floyd went through more style opposition p4p wise

[Fists_of_Fury]

Ward was never on Floyd's level and certainly never above even the worst Floyd level. Ward is on another level only in fouling like his tko low blows, headbutts, etc...

[TonyGe]

Ward had five losses as an amateur. But it doesn't matter when talking about his professional career or Mayweather's.

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that he hasn't lost.

[Mr Objecitivity]

Floyd may have been more technically precise but he bored me. There's a lot of technically sound fighters that I don't care for. Andre was gritty and had a lot of looks.
As far as opposition, are we really valuing fighters like old Pac over Kovalev? K...

Really? Floyd more boring than Andre Ward? I know it's subjective and is in the eye of the beholder but I can't fathom anybody finding Floyd more boring than Ward. Floyd was actually a knockout artist at one point in his career. Which is something Ward never was. Plus, Floyd didn't need to rely on non-boxing moves such as headbutts, low blows and such to win his bouts. Floyd more consistently boxed cleanly against better level of opposition and won his bouts using clean boxing most of the time.

[Oluminati]

Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that he hasn't lost.

That tag line everyone knows and uses is that he hasn't lost since he was 12. But he definitely has losses in the amateurs.

[Oluminati]

Don't forget the fact that Floyd almost always fought bigger guys. Ward and Floyd had incredible ring IQs but Floyd had more natural abilities, which is why Floyd was the better fighter.

[djtmal]

to ward's credit, he's on floyd's level...he beat the best versions of guys in their prime with his skillset whereas floyd didn't

[wlad1111]

No and its not even close. Also i find Mayweathers style pleasing to look at while Wards style looks ugly and dirty to me.

[Lomadeaux]

No comparison between the two. Mayweather is great Ward is not. They are a world apart.

Absolutely correct.

[Doctor_Tenma]

Every point you made here is debatable. For one, the Canelo Floyd fought was at a catchweight and was young and still relatively unskilled, marquez was too small to be any threat to Mayweather and while I know people will argue this til the cows come home, the paq fight was close. Ward constently beat the best he faced, he got the benefit of the doubt in Kovalev one perhaps...

Now regarding Ward: He beat Froch clearly and convincingly when it was thought the fight would be close, He beat Kessler and he put an exclamation point with his tagging the Russian with a punch for the ages.

Ward actually is more well rounded than Mayweather, he fights at all ranges. Floyd definitely is a master at what he does in the ring, even being more accurate than Ward, but not by much.

Its all how you look at it, both guys are great fighters, lets see how far Kovalev goes....to see who Ward beat, and lets look at this comparison a few years down the line... History will tell us in the end where both guys should be.

As does Mayweather, it's funny that because of Ward's reputation as an inside fighter people actually think he was a better operator in that department, he was not. Mayweather did all of that same stuff with a better arsenal offensively. The short right uppercut to the body is probably the most overlooked punch in Mayweather's arsenal.