Is Ward the smartest fighter in the current era(on par with Mayweather)?

[Alanf7]

The guy has such an immense fight iq, he always finds the holes in his opponent's game. The way he went up in weight to face the most scary finisher in current boxing and dismantled him before finishing him was legendary,



Is he on par with Mayweather in terms of skill and fight iq? Imo he is for sure.

On top of that he's a great and humble guy too.

 

[lukeuidswords]

To be fair, you have to be very smart to only sell out half the house in your hometown as a world champ

 

[AJBG]

No. In my opinion, he surpasses Floyd in ring intelligence and tactics. Furthermore, he is effectively undefeated as a professional, and was so for most of his amateur career. He is a gold medallist; Floyd got bronze. He did face the top echelon in several divisions...

 

[nastyleft]

No. In my opinion, he surpasses Floyd in ring intelligence and tactics. Furthermore, he is effectively undefeated as a professional, and was so for most of his amateur career. He is a gold medallist; Floyd got bronze. He did face the top echelon in several divisions...

If you know anything about the Olympics and their judging shenanigans in the late 80s and 90s, you'll understand how Floyd AND Roy Jones didn't win Gold. Since that era they have dramatically changed the method of scoring. That's a terrible argument.

 

[nastyleft]

Top 6 smartest Boxers by RIQ of the last 10 years imo.

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Bernard Hopkins
3. Juan Manuel Marquez
4. Andre Ward
5. Vasl Lomachenko
6. Guillermo Rigondeaux

 

[PUO3]

To be fair, you have to be very smart to only sell out half the house in your hometown as a world champ

Must be genius level smart because he still collected those millions too lol.

 

[Draper]

2nd or 3rd. Depends on how you rate Bernard Hopkins.

 

[Married...With Boxing]

Just under Mayweather and BHOP for me. But I'm not sure about it.

 

[wilddeuces]

Smart? A smart fighter is one that applies their way and their body type best in the ring. A smart fighter makes adjustments to nullify his opponent's strengths. So, Ward is a smart fighter, sure. I don't think anyone will make an argument here. But also: just because he falls under the umbrella of pure boxer doesn't necessarily make him smarter than fighters that pressure or swarm their opponents. Roberto Duran, I would argue, was as smart or smarter. Crawford, Lomachenko, and a slew of others I think belong in these talks. Remember, Ward was a point or two away from losing to Kovalev the first time and we might very well be talking about how smart Kovalev is instead.

A lot of the fighters in the p4p talks can make a case for being among the smartest.

 

[burningspear]

Levels above Floyd outside the ring.

 

[Hagler]

One could argue that Ward got some impressive success without any outstanding physical feature. That's pretty much the definition of a smart fighter. Mayweather is another very smart fighter, who could rely on his physical tools more than Ward could (ie better speed, coordination and reflexes than Ward when compared to the rest of of the field in their respective weight classes - Floyd even had more punch below 147). Dunno if Ward was smarter than Floyd, but I believe he had to rely more on his brains.

 

[wilddeuces]

Must be genius level smart because he still collected those millions too lol.

From what I heard, he wasn't making as much money as one would think for a undefeated world champ that ran through a tournament of SMW's. I heard he bled Roc Nation dry and didn't really generate much money at all for the gates or PPV for his fights when he was under them (or Goosen, or anyone). Still, what fans hear and what actually happens doesn't always have 100% overlap.

Maybe Roc Nation just gets the dumbest promoter award...

 

[AJBG]

If you know anything about the Olympics and their judging shenanigans in the late 80s and 90s, you'll understand how Floyd AND Roy Jones didn't win Gold. Since that era they have dramatically changed the method of scoring. That's a terrible argument.

I do remember Floyd in Atlanta against both the Cuban and the Bulgarian; very good bouts indeed!!! Frankly, I wrongly saw the Cuban winning and the Bulgarian losing... Yet, although controversial for some, I don’t think these bouts even compare to RJJ fragrant robbery of his gold in Seoul 1988...

And with respect to controversial scoring: I don’t believe professional judging is immaculate either. If you compute the ratio between the number of complains to total bouts in the two weeks of boxing during the olympics, you’ll see that number is not worse than the number of controversial decisions we get in the professional ranking for the same number of fights...

Certainly, Floyd is an exceptional pugilist, as was RJJ, Pernell, and even Rigo, or as is Loma. And I’m not disputing here his place in boxing history. But there are those with less physical attributes who depends more on their ring intelligence and tactics (I definitely agree with Hagler in the previous post); and in this category, Ward reings supreme in recent history (seond to Ward in this category, I’ve got Crawford).

 

[Goatenstein]

He is a lowlife nut puncher who I think cheats on his wife with Dan Rafael.

 

[Sunfish]

What I think we need to organise is some kind of super six tournament with these guys and make them solve a Rubik’s cube as fast as possible. Round two will be a game of hungry hungry hippos to test reflexes, round three will be how long can you watch Salma Hayek in from dusk til dawn without getting a chubby.

 

[Hagler]

He is a lowlife nut puncher who I think cheats on his wife with Dan Rafael.

Obviously, you're not a golfer.

 

[aries]

Top 6 smartest Boxers by RIQ of the last 10 years imo.

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2. Bernard Hopkins
3. Juan Manuel Marquez
4. Andre Ward
5. Vasl Lomachenko
6. Guillermo Rigondeaux

Don't mind this list though I'd argue that Ward should be higher up the list. I think he's smarter than JMM. I would also take issue with Rigondeaux being on there at number 6 because he showed no ability to adapt when he fought and lost to Lomachenko. In fact his answer was to quit on his stool.

And despite being my favourite fighter I question Loma as well because he didn't figure out how to beat Salido although he did come close in the final round. I think a lot of his ring smarts come from his dad being his tactician. The way they figured out how to fight and stifle Rigo was amazing.

 

[PUO3]

From what I heard, he wasn't making as much money as one would think for a undefeated world champ that ran through a tournament of SMW's. I heard he bled Roc Nation dry and didn't really generate much money at all for the gates or PPV for his fights when he was under them (or Goosen, or anyone). Still, what fans hear and what actually happens doesn't always have 100% overlap.

Maybe Roc Nation just gets the dumbest promoter award...

He was getting great purses for the revenue he generated in comparison. Its pretty ridiculous really.

 

[D 1 Wrestler]

Nomaschekno does chess while underwater and punching tennis balls, he should be top 3

 

[wilddeuces]

He was getting great purses for the revenue he generated in comparison. Its pretty ridiculous really.

Yeah, but a nickel to a poor kid in the Great Depression is a lot of money "for the revenue he generated [by] comparison." Is Ward's low pay compared to how people favourably perceive him what you are referring to when you say "ridiculous"?