Comments Thread For: Andre Ward: I've Always Felt Like The Underdog

[MisterPullman]

You are making **** up. 168 was possibly the weakest division in boxing. Not one top fighter with speed and power besides Ward. Lots of unathletic, slow euros who were considered "great" while only fighting other slow, unathletic euros, but were exposed as B-level guys eventually when they fought the top guys from the US.

Ward's run at 168, "scaling down" from his natural weight 175 as Virgil Hunter said, reminds me a lot of Adrien Broner's run at 135. Broner was talked about as the next superstar at that time, as a top P4P guy, just like Ward was at 168. Ward stepped up to his natural weight much quicker than Ward though, to a weight class with actual athletic, talented top level fighters, and quickly got exposed.

Now Ward is finally stepping up to his natural weight, like Broner, and to a weight class with actual top level, talented, athletic fighters, like Kovalev, Stevenson, and Beterbiev. Like Broner, we will now finally see how good Ward really is at his natural weight, against actual A-level fighters. Well, at least one A-level fighter. I have no confidence in Ward fighting Stevenson or Beterbiev if he beats Kovalev, but I don't expect him to beat Kovalev.

But yeah I completely disagree with your assessment about 168. That weight class was awful. One of the worst in boxing. I think the best fighters at 135 during Broner's run were Demarco and Ricky Burns, who he didn't fight. At 168 during Ward's run it was Froch.

Well, Froch beat Lucian Bute. Demarco beat Linares. Linares is now a more decorated champ than Bute ever was, in more divisions. So Broner beating Demarco is similar to Ward beating Froch. Ricky Burns meanwhile got dominated by Crawford once he faced a top guy, but is now also a multi-weight champ. Broner would have walked through him too. So Broner beat, and would have beat, guys who either were, or who beat, multi-weight champs. That is comparable to what Ward did at 168 and yet you saw what happened to Broner once he stopped fight overrated, smaller guys in a weak division.

Is Ward better than Broner? Of course but I'm saying his run at 168 was definitely smoke and mirrors. That weight class ******, and he was scaling down to it to fight smaller guys, as his own trainer admitted.

Careful you're using logic and fact to this forum. You are about to make a bunch of Ward fans salty.

[Tony Trick-Pony]

There are plenty of people on here who don't ever consider him an underdog. I think the Kov fight is even, but I definitely favor Kovalev. Just ready to see them get it on.

[BrometheusBob.]

Most sportsbooks have it about as close to dead even as you can get, with Ward barely a favorite. Most boxing notables and media seem to think its about a dead even fight.

Who wrote this article?

[Reloaded]

You should be cheater. Without your clinching and head butts you are nothing more than a B level boxer

B level , Andre Ward ,,,,,,, youre an idiot .

[Beezy93]

How is Ward's run at '68 similar to Broner's at 135? Broner only made the weight once. If you are criticizing Ward for cleaning out a WEAK division, I certainly hope you are not a Triple G Stan...

[Madison Boxing]

Yeah you were a big underdog against Alex brand, Paul Smith etc, you proved everyone wrong by beating them

[Madison Boxing]

You are making **** up. 168 was possibly the weakest division in boxing. Not one top fighter with speed and power besides Ward. Lots of unathletic, slow euros who were considered "great" while only fighting other slow, unathletic euros, but were exposed as B-level guys eventually when they fought the top guys from the US.

Ward's run at 168, "scaling down" from his natural weight 175 as Virgil Hunter said, reminds me a lot of Adrien Broner's run at 135. Broner was talked about as the next superstar at that time, as a top P4P guy, just like Ward was at 168. Ward stepped up to his natural weight much quicker than Ward though, to a weight class with actual athletic, talented top level fighters, and quickly got exposed.

Now Ward is finally stepping up to his natural weight, like Broner, and to a weight class with actual top level, talented, athletic fighters, like Kovalev, Stevenson, and Beterbiev. Like Broner, we will now finally see how good Ward really is at his natural weight, against actual A-level fighters. Well, at least one A-level fighter. I have no confidence in Ward fighting Stevenson or Beterbiev if he beats Kovalev, but I don't expect him to beat Kovalev.

But yeah I completely disagree with your assessment about 168. That weight class was awful. One of the worst in boxing. I think the best fighters at 135 during Broner's run were Demarco and Ricky Burns, who he didn't fight. At 168 during Ward's run it was Froch.

Well, Froch beat Lucian Bute. Demarco beat Linares. Linares is now a more decorated champ than Bute ever was, in more divisions. So Broner beating Demarco is similar to Ward beating Froch. Ricky Burns meanwhile got dominated by Crawford once he faced a top guy, but is now also a multi-weight champ. Broner would have walked through him too. So Broner beat, and would have beat, guys who either were, or who beat, multi-weight champs. That is comparable to what Ward did at 168 and yet you saw what happened to Broner once he stopped fight overrated, smaller guys in a weak division.

Is Ward better than Broner? Of course but I'm saying his run at 168 was definitely smoke and mirrors. That weight class ******, and he was scaling down to it to fight smaller guys, as his own trainer admitted.

Great post

[Ake-Dawg]

The crap being posted is EXACTLY what Ward is talking about. Now all of a sudden 168 was weak when he cleaned it out. Now all of a sudden Ward loses weight to fight at 168 is different from what every other fighter that hasn't moved up does. EVERYONE except for a select few are scaled down. He feels like an underdog not just for an individual fight, but in the boxing legacy game. He feels he has to do more, go beyond reasonable expectations just to win in the legacy game. That's the underdog he is talking about. It's the same mindset that drives the good to be great and the great to be legendary.

[Herr Schmeling]

Ward is such a crybaby. He got everything handed to him on the silver tablet, but he's pretending he came up the hard way. What a pathetic clown!!!

[zzat]

But he was labeled as "the guy" at one point. They were trying to call him the next Roy jones jr. I've followed his pro career from the beginning and he was a whiner back then. He also struggled early in his career with guys that were supposed to be easy, confidence building fights. He got put on spaghetti legs by a guy named Kenny Kost, a white boy from Iowa or some shiat. His "step up fight" was against a washed up Edison Miranda on which fought scared, just looking to out wrestle his opponent. After winning the super six tourney, he was adored by the media and fans. It seemed like he didn't like the love and attention and preferred to be an outsider. He even bragged about not taking the beaten path in his career and saying that he liked to do things differently than signing with a major promoter and getting the support of the networks which is his perogative, but don't purposely go against the grain and then try to play the victim card and say you've never had the support of the boxing establishment.

Besides that bolded part, I think your post is very well put.