Andre Ward should move up to 175, says Kovalev’s trainer

By Boxing News - 04/09/2015 - Comments

ward1By Scott Gilfoid: John David Jackson, the trainer for IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, believes that it’s high time that WBA Super World super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KOs) moves up to the light heavyweight division to start campaigning as a 175 pound fighter rather than staying at 168 and trying to fight the guys that he already beat like Carl Froch.

Jackson doesn’t see any point in Ward staying at super middleweight because there’s really no one left for him to fight at this weight. Ward already whipped Froch, and he’s obviously not having any luck trying to get Froch and his promoter Eddie Hearn to agree to fight him in London, UK.

Froch and Hearn want the Ward rematch to take place in Nottingham, UK, the hometown of Froch. It’s also the place where American Andre Dirrell fought Froch in 2009 and found himself losing a controversial decision that many boxing fans thought Dirrell should have won. Ward doesn’t want to put himself in a position where he’s fighting in Froch’s hometown. Ward isn’t saying why, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he doesn’t want to suffer the same fate that Dirrell did in losing a fight that he arguably should have won without any problems.

Ward will be fighting on June 20th against an opponent still to be determined at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California, USA. The potential opponent is Marco Antonio Periban. This is a good opponent for Ward given the fact that he has been out of the ring since November of 2013. Ward deserves a tune-up bout after being out of the ring for a year and a half.

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“As far as Andre Ward is concerned, there isn’t anything left for him to do at 168,” Jackson said via Fighthype.com. “He’s done what he was supposed to do and now he can’t go back and beat the same guys again because what does it prove. Maybe one or two more and come to 175. That’s the next stop for you. Many feel you should be there already.”

Ward doesn’t see there being a lot of guys for him to fight at 168 beyond Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson. Once Ward has fought those guys, he’ll be stuck with fighting guys like Isaac Chilemba, Artur Beterbiev, Juergen Braehmer, Jean Pascal, Eleider Alvarez and Andrezj Fonfara. Those are decent fighters, but none of them other than Pascal are big names.

If Ward stays at 168, his options are just as limited if not more. I don’t see the Froch fight ever happening again. The fact that Froch and his promoter Hearn are insisting that the fight with Ward take place in Nottingham gives you a pretty good idea about their desire, or lack thereof, in facing Ward again. Interestingly enough, Hearn and Froch are more than willing to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States. But I guess that doesn’t apply to Ward. He has to come to not only the UK, but to Froch’s hometown of Nottingham if he wants to fight Froch again. That tells me that Froch and Hearn aren’t serious about wanting to fight Ward. This is one way for them to not take the fight with Ward by insisting that it take place in Nottingham, I believe. I mean, if you really want to fight someone, you don’t make it conditional on them fighting in your hometown, especially when they beat you in the past like Ward did with Froch. The guy that should be trying hard to get a rematch is Froch, not Ward, because he’s the one that lost to Ward. It just seems like Froch and Hearn are dragging their feet over a Ward rematch, and by saying that he has to come to Nottingham, it makes the fight undoable.

“Unless I get a fight that excites me soon I may well hang up the gloves,” Froch said via the Dailymail.co.uk.

I guess George Groves, an unproven fighter got Froch excited twice in the past despite the fact that Groves had limited experience at the upper level in the pro game at the time that Froch fought him. Froch wants Chavez Jr, a fighter who has already been exposed and who hasn’t fought a top fighter in three years since his loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012. In the last three years, Chavez Jr has twice fought middleweight journeyman Brian Vera, and arguably was beaten in his first fight with him. It’s unclear why Froch has any interest in fighting Chavez Jr. It is very strange. If anyone, Froch should be looking to face Ward, Andre Dirrell or Gennady Golovkin. These are all fighters who have been busy and who are at the top of the sport. Chavez Jr is just some guy who has fought only twice in the past three years with both fights coming against Vera.



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