When will we see Andre Ward again?

By donnell.young202 - 09/08/2013 - Comments

ward324By Donnell Young: Andre Ward was no doubt head and shoulders above the rest of the competition in the Super Six Tournament.  Watching him do away with all comers in this tournament only left me with one thought.  Was the Super Six Tournament the best thing for his career?  Let’s look at the facts.

Ward defeated all of the “big names” in his division during the tournament leaving him with few options for fights that the public would really want to see.  During the tournament, the most intriguing fight for him may have been the bout against Andre Dirrell which never took place because of the injury that Dirrell suffered in his previous fight with Arthur Abraham.  

I watched that fight and I have a hard time believing that the illegal blow Abraham landed did enough damage to force Dirrell into the hiatus from boxing that he has yet to recover from. Despite that, I seriously doubt that the Ward fight was one he wanted to have at that stage in his career.

After beating the A class fighters of the super middleweight division (i.e. Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, and Artur Abraham) and winning the tournament in December of 2011, he has had only one fight. He put his belts on the line and defeated Chad Dawson, who came down in weight to take the fight.  Now the question for Ward is who will he fight next?  

The super middle weight division lacks box office  talent outside of a few fighters.  Most of whom, Ward has already defeated.  At the same time, there are some potential big fights in the middleweight and light heavyweight division.  In the middleweight division you have Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Peter Quillin, Gennady Golovkin, and Sergio Martinez.  All of whom many would probably pay to see fight Ward(I will throw Saul Alvarez into the mix as well since he could be fighting as a middleweight in the near future).  However, we rarely hear any of these fighters speak of Ward as an opponent.  In the light heavyweight division you have Adonis Stevenson,  Tavoris Cloud, and Jean Pascal.  All of whom would probably make good fights for Ward.  

Seeing as how HBO seems to have little interest in airing a fight between Andre Ward and the best available super middleweights,  he may have no choice but to step up or down in weight in order to get a fight.  No matter which route he takes, it would be best for all parties involved (fans included) for Andre Ward to get back in the ring sometime in the very near future.

After all, he is an undefeated champion in his prime and the last U.S.A. boxing olympic gold medal winner.  Although he is the number two pound for pound fighter in the world, maybe he is too respectful to command a lot of attention from U.S.A. boxing fans.  We seem to be most intrigued by loud mouth trash talkers rather than skillful fighters.  Either way it goes, we need to see Ward in the ring as soon as possible.   



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