Ottke was also a joke but if he was American people would have rated him a top 3 p4p fighter just like they are doing with Ward.
This is just my opinion, Mikkel kessler is stronger and more powerfull hands than Ward, if Ward wasnt allowed all the clinching and headbutts, what totally ***** up any BOXERS gameplan, they train for boxing and not MMA, then Kessler would have stopped Ward in the later rounds, sooner or later Kessler will catch him and then it will all be over, Ward is not a KO figther and is like Ottke running the shots in, and the holding, THATS not boxing..
NOBODY want to see the Ward shows, think about why Kessler lost AND STILL makes a lot more money than Ward??? DOOOOHHH
I totally agree and have said before that this was a shake down result. Home town ref, home town judges, home town comission, everything was set up for Ward to win this fight.
Ward headbutted Kessler 5 times, which caused a massive cut to Kessler's eye. This resulted in Kessler suffering from blurred vision and having to take 2 years out of the ring until his vision was sorted out.
On top of the headbutts, there were 90 clinches and dozens of rabbit punches, hitting and holding, and elbows used by Ward. Kessler was shocked that Ward was being allowed to do anything he wanted with no repercussions.
Ward fans will tell you that he easily beat the best super middleweight in the world that night. They say that Ward getting points deducted for headbutts wouldn't matter because he was so far ahead. However the dirty tactic's that Ward was allowed to get away with drastically affected Kessler's performance. If this fight was held anywhere else in the world, Ward wouldn't have been able to get away this those kind of tactics, or he would have been disqualified.
I have always thought there should be a rematch between Ward and Kessler, without Wards home town advantages.
Is Andre really half Irish?
I hated that fight and that result. I had doubts about Ward for years after that because of how he fought and the fact that it was all engineered to favor the guy. At the time it was Mikkel that was the established fighter while Ward was a promising young up and comer.
Ward has since proven himself and the Kessler farce of a fight will be looked at as a slight controversy but nothing to affect his legacy.
Actually Sven Ottke and Joe Calzaghe are historically two of a kind, both over protected homebodies who never took any serious risks. Andre Ward is about as technically superior to Mikkel Kessler as two fighters can get, and choosing not to allow European scorekeepers to do to Ward what the scorekeepers in England did to Andre Dirrell when Dirrell beat Froch is only common sense. European's are expected to rob Americans if the American fighter is stupid enough to fight them in Europe, it's kind of like fighting Lucian Bute in Montreal, you have to KO him because you will not get a decision no matter how well you fight. Call it home town favoritism or just plain corruption, but every since the Korean Olympic debacle with Roy Jones, it's been pretty much a sewer. There isn't even a semblance of impartiality or fairness in score keeping, its shameless.
You're right.
Ward is a great fighter and he is 1 of the only guys who can be considered undisputed in any division but i always thought he was a bit overrated.
Many of his biggest wins were not impressive and they came under questionable circumstances, and i still don't understand how the Ring ranks Ward above Wladimir in the p4p list.
Ward doesn't move from his division because he doesn't want to, Wladimir doesn't because he can't, but Wladimir has far more titles, FAR more title defenses [that were more 1 sided], Wlad is old yet his last 4 opponents were undefeated top contenders/champions some of which were much larger than him.
Andre Ward is great and an ATG supermiddleweight but that's it. P4P he isn't all that.
Andre ward whupped Kessler *** but you UK boys can't accept the truth. He dominated a hype job.
Fk ward.
Sore losers!
Here is a post from a guy called Farmboxer on boxingforum.com which sums up by thoughts on Ward vs Kessler:
"Kessler was the champion, yet Ward refused to fight him anywhere except his home town with his personal referee, judges, boxing commission and commentators to tell you is winning the fight. Ward used his head, elbows, held, but the last head butt came from across the ring, was intentional, but Ward's referee believes that intentional headbutts are legal as long as Ward is the one using his head. Ward should have been disqualified, but that is one reason that Ward's referee was there."
The whole thing stunk to high heaven. Disgraceful headbutting. The last headbutt, the lead headbutt was a flagrant disgraceful foul.
