By Jaime Ortega: As I mentioned in part one, Andre Ward can surpass Many Pacquiao’s and Floyd Mayweather Jr. legacy. To continue my argument I want to state that Ward has already accomplished a goal Mayweather and Pacquiao never achieved during their stellar careers— an Olympic gold medal. Anyone who understands boxing, knows that qualifying for the Olympics is an incredible difficult task to achieve –never-mind the medal rounds.
The Olympic gold medal is hard to win and the opponents are super talented boxers who come from all over the world on their prime. Terrence Crawford failed to qualify for the Olympics set as alternate instead; Mayweather Jr. lost a controversial decision, and Errol Spence Jr. lost to a Kazakh and a Russian with elite jabs. The only current undefeated American professional boxer to achieve a gold medal is Andre Ward – few acknowledge it as a true accomplishment—it is a difficult task!
In order for Ward to set a legacy status above Mayweather and Pacquiao, he needs to convincingly beat Sergey Kovalev on the rematch; defeat the fiercest lefty in boxing —Adonis Stevenson; beat Artur Beterbiev — the most technically talented and dangerous opponent on the light heavyweight division; beat the highly skillful Ukrainian talents Vyaschelav Shabranskyy and Oleksandr Gvozdyk – who’re very risky and pose stylistic barriers that could upset the American. Then Ward needs move down in weight to 168lbs and fight Gennady Golovkin or meet him on a catch-weight. Not to mention, Ward will face other future menaces that might emerge on the super middleweight division soon, who might offer a serious challenge to his reign – he is 32 and has enough battery left to defend his legacy. Defensive boxers typically stay longer in the boxing game than offensive boxers.
Mayweather and Pacquiao have faced few boxers with the caliber and characteristics of the undefeated light heavyweight boxers stated above; all powerful boxers and highly dangerous. Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley and Erik Morales had skills but were not undefeated – can’t really count Marquez for Mayweather because the Mexican jumped two weight classes to fight him. Also all the fighters mentioned above except Mosley and Canelo, were not on their prime when they fought Pacquiao and Mayweather – on the flipside, Ward will face all fighters on their prime – fighters on their prime tend to be a lot more aggressive and confident, if undefeated.
The others issue, is that the main difference between the welterweight and the light heavyweight division is power and weight play a more significant factor – you can’t any commit mistakes and not pay for it. Also the higher weight classes incorporate highly technical Eastern European boxers who know how to box backwards and forward –Shabranskyy and Govzdyk show technical diversification of the traditional soviet style of boxing. The Russians just to edge the rest of Eastern Europeans boxers, but not anymore.
Pacquiao lost to unknown fighters like Medgoen Singsurat and Rustico Torrecampo; he got knocked out by Marquez and lost against Mayweather and Morales. Then the Alex Ariza controversy still remains an issue. Did the yummy Ariza milkshakes contain PED’s? – Speculation without proof is simply hearsay, but still remains a delicate subject and a controversial matter for many boxing fans. I still believe despise his losses that if he beats boxers like Terrence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia he can surpass Mayweather’s legacy –very unlikely task at his age.
It could also be rightly argued that Mayweather is the type of prizefighter, who will take an ‘Andre Berto or Marcos Maidana over a Keith Thurman’ or ‘vacate the Jr. welterweight division before facing Erik Morales’ –two factual claims. Mayweather has been branded a cherry picker by many boxing experts –including Max Kellerman. His career has been controversial and full of drama – and it has polish him to become the hated billionaire he is today. Mayweather beat Pacquiao with his jab, left no marks on his face— and it wasn’t on their prime. Then suddenly the illegal use of IV’s scandal came as an ugly surprise to Mayweather’s career that jaw dropped the boxing world. Only an investigative piece of journalism remains of the controversial accusation, and a formal VADA letter. The fact Mayweather never left Las Vegas, has also allowed skeptics to speculate he is unjustly protected on his hometown by the Nevada Athletic Commission because his name generates a lot of revenue for Sin City – true or not, there is room for argument.
Ward unlike Pacquiao or Mayweather has never been accused of any drug use or performance enhancers. Ward has never lost a fight since he was thirteen. He also hasn’t cherry picked opponents and has taken all boxers on their prime or at their peak. Ward hasn’t ducked anyone. So Ward already has defeated Mayweather and Pacquiao on the Olympics and drug free department.
Mayweather’s boxing pedigree consisted mostly on fighting brawlers like Ricky Haton, Marcos Maidana, Luis Castillo, Victor Ortiz, Andre Berto, Robert Guerrero, Shramba Mitchell, Diego Corrales and other boxers that virtually offered the exact same roughed styles and no technical challenge to his undefeated record – same old, same old — over and over again! Not to mention that the first 24 boxers that Mayweather faced had horrible-horrible records. Where is the highly technical boxers like Erislandy Lara, Winky Wright, Paul Williams, Erik Morales, Sergio Martinez and Tszyu Kostya on Mayweather’s boxing resume? Had Mayweather faced such high caliber opponents instead of facing the likes of Jesus Chavez, Carlos Baldomir, Chop Chop Corley, Ortiz, Berto, Maidana, Zab Judah no one – and I mean absolutely no one — could question his legacy. Why face a green Canelo, when he could have challenged a seasoned veteran southpaw like Lara who has been lurking the Jr. Middleweight division for years? No matter the opinions, there’s significant room for discussion – I can’t say the same of Ward.
So can Ward surpass the record of Pacquiao and Floyd? Not only can he surpass both boxing legacies, but make his own unique stamp on the Hall of Fame. He is one step of cleaning the light heavyweight division. The best part about Ward’s victory is that he faced Kovalev during his prime and most dangerous moment – he didn’t wait for him to lose or get older — like other boxers…! There’s no doubt the fight with Kovalev was a draw on my mind, and could have gone either way, but Kovalev is partly responsible for allowing Ward to slowly catch his rhythm — he should have gone for the kill and not gamble. Ward hasn’t ducked anyone, as I mentioned on my previous post, Gennady Golovkin’s team clearly ducked Ward. Not only did Ward step up his game after a two year layoff, but he even said recently that he is willing to face a heavy weight – that is the sign of a true warrior who needs to be respected and supported. The cure of the Mayweather syndrome is called Ward.
My top three fighters in history were Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson and Harry Greb – no one comes close to achieving what those three boxers achieved. Everyone should be familiar with the tremendous accomplishments of Ray Robinson and Armstrong, but few know the story of Greb. There’s no footage available of Greb’s boxing career, but what made him stand out from other boxers like Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Jack Dempsey, Marvin Hagler etc., is that Greb was a natural welterweight who fought and beat middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights – in fact he gave legendary heavyweight Gene Tunney his first loss and only loss – Tunney was a beast and one of the best heavyweights in history. Now imagine Pacquiao or Floyd fighting Wladimir Klitschko and beating him –get the point?
Boxers who don’t take risks damage their legacy; boxers who take tougher challenges automatically enhance their rank on Hall of Fame. The common misconception is that undefeated records and world championship belts create legacy – no doubt it helps boost legacy – but the ultimate legacy enhancers are risk and how competitive the era or the division were – a combination of the three is what the Golden Era of boxing encompassed; Armstrong and Greb the biggest two risks takers on boxing history fought on hardcore competitive eras– and they won against all odds. Boxers like Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Willie Pep and Rocky Marciano will remain big legends, but never on the top of the pyramid like Robinson, Armstrong or Greb – some couldn’t because their weight class was the highest and taking risk inside your weight class is not legendary. Ali taking on the dangerous George Foreman is no risk –no matter the knockout power coefficient –they both were heavyweights. Now go check Armstrong and Greb, and what they accomplished and compare it with Ali – it takes something special.
The point is that Ward has a chance to cement his legacy above Mayweather and Pacquiao; all that Ward needs to surpass their respected legacies, is take risks! Ward is highly technical and mentally gifted to overcome any fighter as he showed it with Kovalev – who should have knocked him out on the early rounds. If Ward stopped the best light heavyweight of the decade, he has a chance to overcome any other fighter – but it will be hard and his chances are slightly against him. I believe Ward can become the best boxer in the past 25 years if he takes risks and delivers. Ward has already beat Floyd and Pacquiao on other departments.