By Daven: Andre “SOG” Ward (27-0, 14 KO’s) is clearly the number 2 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, yet his purse for his last bout equated to a mere $2,000,000. This may sound like a decent amount but when people take into consideration that Floyd Mayweather Jr. netted over $40,000,000 for beating up Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. The figures don’t correlate. Andre is the second best boxer in the world and normally in any profession the second best gets paid handsomely.
The numbers from their last fights suggest that Ward is twenty times inferior than Mayweather as a boxer and that is simply ludicrous. I personally regard Ward as a very close second in the Pound for Pound list, as he has outclassed greater competition than Mayweather. The likes of Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch and Chad Dawson were all in their primes when they faced Ward and all own trademark victories over other top contenders. Do the likes of Robert Guerrero, Victor Ortiz or Canelo have the same status as the aforementioned above? No they do not to be frank.
By Daven: It really was a strange 2013 for two time world middleweight challenger Martin Murray (26-1-1, 11 KO’s). The year started as promising as he could have hoped for. Taking Sergio Martinez to the scorecards in the most hostile of territories is no easy feat; Matthew Macklin and Darren Barker can testify to that and they fought him in USA. Moreover Murray knocked down Sergio three times yet the judges scorecards seemed to ignore this sensational accomplishment, nonetheless Murray’s performance was probably the finest of all British boxers in 2013 when faced with foreign opposition.