By Scott Gilfoid: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward (25-0, 13 KO’s) moved up to the No.5 spot in The Ring Magazine’s pound for pound list with Ward’s one-sided masterpiece performance against WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch in the Super Six tournament finals bout on December 17th.

Ward beat Froch easily despite fighting with a fractured left hand that Ward had going into the fight. Ward now has a cast on his left hand and is healing while he and his promoter Dan Goosen consider his options for his next fight.

In the Los Angeles press conference Ward said “I’m not pound for pound king yet but I hope I’m getting close. I’m on the fight track. I respect the guys who have come before me who have been in the game longer than me – the Floyd Mayweathers; the Manny Pacquiaos. But we’re definitely creeping up the list. That’s the goal. One day we’ll sit on top of the list.”

I have no doubts that Ward will soon be perched on the very top of the pound for pound list, because Mayweather is getting old at 34, and he may not be around too much longer. The same goes for the 33-year-old Manny Pacquiao, who is showing more signs of aging and slowing down than Mayweather is. Neither of those guys will likely be still fighting at top form in three years.

Bob Arum might be able to keep Pacquiao winning for another three years but only if he starts matching him with weaker opposition because he’s going to start taking losses soon.

Other than Mayweather and Pacquiao, there’s no out there that is at Ward’s level right now. The only fighter I can see that can possibly get in the way of Ward becoming the No.1 pound for pound fighter is Andre Dirrell, if he can successfully make a comeback without any additional affects from the blow to the head he took in his fight with Arthur Abraham last year.

Dirrell has got the speed, the size and the defense to beat Ward but he’s got to get some wins under his belt and prove that he’s 100 percent back before that will happen.