Ward to Froch: When you can’t beat a style, you criticize it

By Boxing News - 05/27/2013 - Comments

ward54By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward struck back at IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch last Saturday night after hearing him drone on in an interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman about how boring Ward’s fighting style is and how it doesn’t excite boxing fans.

Ward calmly listened to Froch say his thing and then commented to Jim Lampley and television viewers “When you [Froch] cannot beat a certain style, you tend to knock it.”

That was so incredibly wise of Ward. I almost felt like I was listening to a great philosopher or psychologist dissecting Froch’s words and translating what they real mean. It was brilliant stuff. That right there for me was the highlight of the entire evening. The fight itself was nothing compared to that line because it was so insightful and it said a lot.

Froch said this to the Guardian.co.uk “I had a little chat with him [Ward] tonight, and I think I upset him. I said ‘I don’t mean any disrespect, I’m just being honest, I’m not talking personalities, I’m talking boxing and your style would put a glass eye to sleep.”

The style that Froch is talking about is one where Ward uses his jab a great deal and fights on the inside. I think I remember Froch using his jab a great deal last Saturday night against Mikkel Kessler, and let to him winning the fight. If Froch thinks jabbing is so bad, then why did he use it against Kessler?

A HUGE part of Ward’s game is simple jabbing, except he has a much better jab than Froch. I mean, there’s no comparison. Ward’s jab is world’s better. The other part of Ward’s game is basic inside fighting. There’s no mystery to it. It’s just normal inside fighting, which Froch doesn’t appear to be too familiar with.

I personally like to watch fighters that fight on the inside, but I can see how it would be tough on the guy that doesn’t have skills to fight in close. It’s interesting to watch when both fighters know how to fight on the inside, but it becomes one-sided when one guy totally dominates in close like Ward did with Froch two years ago. I think that’s the only thing boring about their fight.

It was that Froch didn’t have the skills to fight on the inside, so he got punched around every time they came in close. But it was only boring because Froch didn’t have the skills and it became too one-sided, and yeah, that’s boring when you watch some poor over-matched fighter taking a beating on the inside.

If Froch were trained by Ward’s trainer Virgil Hunter from day one, I think would be an excellent inside fighter and I think he would SO much better than he is now. But the fact is he didn’t get that valuable training and he’s basically just outside guy who is out of his element every time the action gets in close.

That’s why Froch will always lose to Ward no matter how many times they fight. They can when they’re 80-year-old, and Ward will get the better of Froch because inside fighters have a huge advantage over guys that only can fight on the outside.



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