By Dan Ambrose: WBA Super middleweight champ Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KOs) was at last night’s Roc Nation fight card at Madison Square Garden in New York. Ward, who recently signed with Roc Nation last Friday, was asked if he’d be interested in fighting WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs), and he said he’d have no problems taking that fight.
Ward expressed no interest in moving up to light heavyweight to fight in that weight class. Ward wouldn’t have to move up in weight. He’d just need to be open to fighting the top guys in that division like Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson and Jean Pascal.
When asked if he’d be interested in fighting Golovkin, Ward said “No problem. If you look at my track record and the guys I’ve fought. I’ve fought the best in the last four years. I have no problems fighting the best.”
What some boxing fans have a problem with Ward is that he’s willing to fight a guy smaller than him in Golovkin, but he’s not shown the same interest in moving up in weight briefly to fight at 175 in order to take on Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev. Some boxing fans feel that Ward is afraid to fight guys a little bit bigger than him.
In the case of Stevenson and Jean Pascal, Ward would be pretty much the exact same size as those two guys. Both Kovalev and Ward are the same height at 6’0”. Kovalev has a little weight on Ward, but that’s about it.
“I understand people talking about me going up [to 175], but I’ve defended my belts and I’m going to continue to defend my [168 pound] belts,” Ward told Thaboxingvoice.com.
No one is asking Ward to move up to light heavyweight. They just want to see whether he’d be willing to move up in weight briefly to challenge Stevenson and Kovalev for their titles. It would only involve a seven pound move up in weight for Ward, and he wouldn’t have to drain himself like Chad Dawson did in moving down from light heavyweight to fight Ward in 2012.
In being reluctant to move up to light heavyweight to get what could be two fights that would give him a good payday, Ward comes across to some as being fearful of a potential loss to either of those guys. It’s all well and good that Ward wants to fight a smaller middleweight in Golovkin, but why isn’t he showing interest in fighting someone his own size or a little bigger in Stevenson and Kovalev?
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