Andre Ward vs. Artur Beterbiev.

[VG_Addict]

Who wins if they fight?

[ClivePatrickLyons]

Ward

[Enlightened-One]

The fight won't happen.

Beterbiev has nothing that Ward wants. No title. No money. No prestige amongst casuals. And Haymon and Roc Nation won't work with each other.

[Oiky]

Ward

[SFW]

I think Beterbiev would likely do what Kovalev couldn't, get a stoppage.

[Kalan]

Ward would be favored, but I like Beterbiev in this one if he's sharp, active and trained right. He outboxed Kovalev twice in the amateurs and is a tougher, stronger, bigger man who punches harder -- and Kovalev objectively beat Ward.

The only thing I don't like about Beterbiev is the very few fights and very few rounds he's had for the amount of time he's been a professional -- and all the ridiculous mismatches he's had to endure... Even though he easily destroyed Gabriel Caprillo and and Travoris Cloud, who were both Light Heavyweight Champions, he effectively hasn't had a fight yet... When Mike Tyson was 18 months into his career he had 28 fights and the Heavyweight Title. That's the way you match a great puncher. You keep him busy or he doesn't get enough rounds to stay sharp. If he carries somebody to get more rounds under his belt it's not real work. If he sits around for months between fights, that doesn't work.

[mikstlouis]

I think Beterviev win

[boxing_rocks]

Beterbiev will maul Ward inside.

[victor-romeo]

Ward would be a huge favorite in my eyes.Beterbiev could get lucky thats it\.

Honestly who the hell has Beterbiev even fought as a professional? Nobody, Meanwhile Ward has a massive resume with most of his best wins at 168 pounds.

Beterbiev is 32 years old. I don't know if it is the promoter or injuries or what but basically at that age his prime is past and his career hasn't even got off the floor yet.

[boxing_rocks]

Ward would be a huge favorite in my eyes.Beterbiev could get lucky thats it\.

Honestly who the hell has Beterbiev even fought as a professional? Nobody, Meanwhile Ward has a massive resume with most of his best wins at 168 pounds.

Beterbiev is 32 years old. I don't know if it is the promoter or injuries or what but basically at that age his prime is past and his career hasn't even got off the floor yet.

Resumes don't fight in the ring. Beterbiev would stick Ward's resume in one of available holes.

[victor-romeo]

Ward would be a huge favorite in my eyes.Beterbiev could get lucky thats it\.

Honestly who the hell has Beterbiev even fought as a professional? Nobody, Meanwhile Ward has a massive resume with most of his best wins at 168 pounds.

Beterbiev is 32 years old. I don't know if it is the promoter or injuries or what but basically at that age his prime is past and his career hasn't even got off the floor yet.

Resumes don't fight in the ring. Beterbiev would stick Ward's resume in one of available holes.

who is the best person you have seen Beterbiev fight as a professional so far?

[boxing_rocks]

Ward would be a huge favorite in my eyes.Beterbiev could get lucky thats it\.

Honestly who the hell has Beterbiev even fought as a professional? Nobody, Meanwhile Ward has a massive resume with most of his best wins at 168 pounds.

Beterbiev is 32 years old. I don't know if it is the promoter or injuries or what but basically at that age his prime is past and his career hasn't even got off the floor yet.

Resumes don't fight in the ring. Beterbiev would stick Ward's resume in one of available holes.

who is the best person you have seen Beterbiev fight as a professional so far?

Doesn't matter. Who did Gassiev beat before fighting Lebedev? Who did Lomachenko beat before fighting Russell Jr? Beterbiev has a great inside game which is usually where Ward has advantage. I don't see how Ward can win this one.

[victor-romeo]

Resumes don't fight in the ring. Beterbiev would stick Ward's resume in one of available holes.

who is the best person you have seen Beterbiev fight as a professional so far?

Doesn't matter. Who did Gassiev beat before fighting Lebedev? Who did Lomachenko beat before fighting Russell Jr? Beterbiev has a great inside game which is usually where Ward has advantage. I don't see how Ward can win this one.

Your point is well taken, Lomachenko did fight Salido before Russell which gave Lomachenko some real knowledge even though he lost,
Anyways I doubt we see Ward vs Beterbiev anytime soon, I am waiting to see how Beterbiev does against Sullivan, one of Wards warm up fights before Kovalev.

[diddy]

Tired of these hypothetical matchups. Start threads for fights that are actually happening. And if they're fantasy matchups -say so in the title so I don't have to waste my time clicking on the thread.

[Evander]

If a Kovalev rematch is on the cards and a single bout for both of them in between to help juice it up is the line then it's probably not going to be this one for Ward.

[Jip]

let ward live, bert would crush him

[boxing_rocks]

Ward will never fight Beterbiev. I see him asking who Beterbiev is when asked if he is gonna fight Artur.

[caldo2025]

More Beterbiev BS. The guy doesn't want to be a champion. He doesn't want to be tested. He could have all the talent in the world and people can keep pointing to the fact that he beat Kovalev up in second grade or whatever. But the key is that GGG and Kovalev decided that they wanted to fight as much as possible and against the best available to build their name. Beterbiev has the opposite mission of that. This kid Beterbiev is going at a pace of a 22 year old boxer instead of a 32 year old boxer with a very small window to make his mark.

Sick of hearing about this kid.

[boxing_rocks]

More Beterbiev BS. The guy doesn't want to be a champion. He doesn't want to be tested. He could have all the talent in the world and people can keep pointing to the fact that he beat Kovalev up in second grade or whatever. But the key is that GGG and Kovalev decided that they wanted to fight as much as possible and against the best available to build their name. Beterbiev has the opposite mission of that. This kid Beterbiev is going at a pace of a 22 year old boxer instead of a 32 year old boxer with a very small window to make his mark.

Sick of hearing about this kid.

First of all, he had an injury. Second: he poses the same amount of risk as Golovkin and Kovalev without belts and money attached to it which is why top level opponents have been ducking him. The only stone which can be thrown at him is his refusal to fight Kovalev before his injury.

[VG_Addict]

More Beterbiev BS. The guy doesn't want to be a champion. He doesn't want to be tested. He could have all the talent in the world and people can keep pointing to the fact that he beat Kovalev up in second grade or whatever. But the key is that GGG and Kovalev decided that they wanted to fight as much as possible and against the best available to build their name. Beterbiev has the opposite mission of that. This kid Beterbiev is going at a pace of a 22 year old boxer instead of a 32 year old boxer with a very small window to make his mark.

Sick of hearing about this kid.

I'll be honest, I'm not all that impressed with Beterbiev.

[davie]

If Beterbiev is good enough, if he can do what Kovalev couldn't, he will need significantly more top level competition.
By which time Andre is retired

Right now?
I don't give him much more than a wide punchers chance, Ward schools him, he's rough and IMO not anywhere near ready

[Enlightened-One]

The only stone which can be thrown at him is his refusal to fight Kovalev before his injury.

Beterbiev didn't refuse the Kovalev fight. GYM did for political reasons.

GYM was actually trying to orchestrate a Kovalev-Beterbiev fight, but they wanted to do so from a position of strength (with Artur owning the mandatory challenger status with the IBF), in order to force through a purse bid and to negotiate more favourable terms for their fighter.

Yvon Michel's ultimate aim was to gain control of all the 175lb championships, with stablemates Stevenson and Beterbiev as the champions.

If Main Events didn't play ball with GYM's Haymon-funded IBF title purse bid, Kovalev would have had to vacate his championship due to his exclusive contract with HBO.

Unfortunately an injury to Beterbiev scuppered GYM's plans and Kovalev ended-up losing his titles.

The Ward-Beterbiev fight is very possible, since Andre no longer has an exclusive contract with HBO, but I don't know whether Haymon would be willing to work with Roc Nation (due to their long-standing beef).

Therefore, I suspect that Haymon will try to win the IBF purse bid for a potential Ward-Beterbiev fight to avoid working with Roc Nation.

[caldo2025]

More Beterbiev BS. The guy doesn't want to be a champion. He doesn't want to be tested. He could have all the talent in the world and people can keep pointing to the fact that he beat Kovalev up in second grade or whatever. But the key is that GGG and Kovalev decided that they wanted to fight as much as possible and against the best available to build their name. Beterbiev has the opposite mission of that. This kid Beterbiev is going at a pace of a 22 year old boxer instead of a 32 year old boxer with a very small window to make his mark.

Sick of hearing about this kid.

First of all, he had an injury. Second: he poses the same amount of risk as Golovkin and Kovalev without belts and money attached to it which is why top level opponents have been ducking him. The only stone which can be thrown at him is his refusal to fight Kovalev before his injury.

I'm tried of hearing how good this kid is and meanwhile his toughest fight as been against flash in the pan Tavoris Cloud. Don't tell me that he and his team are trying to get him the best possible opponents. Not with that record. No one has seem him tested and in the fights where he's been televised, he doesn't look special to most. At least when Kovalev and GGG were fighting bums, they were knocking them out spectacularly.

This is not the Amateurs...it's the Pro Game. A gold medal can only take you so far in the show.