By Gav Duthie: I recently wrote an article depicting my thoughts on the P4P scene post Floyd Mayweather. The obvious answer to the man who would be the new king is Andre Ward. He is by far the most talented boxer and is only 31 years old. In reality its hard to see him ever getting back to the top. He has not fought since the end of 2013 and even when joining forces with Jay-Z Roc Nation promotions I’m still unsure of his future career path. It has been confirmed that he will fight on June 20th and is said to be in advanced negotiations to fight ex-world title contender Marco Antonio Periban.
Periban 21-3-1 (13)
Let’s be honest Ward could beat Periban with one arm tied behind his back. The Mexican is coming off the back of a 3rd round knockout defeat to James DeGale. In that fight Periban looked out of shape, slow and sluggish.
The issue is I am not even disappointed to hear that this is Wards next fight. I’m just glad he is fighting at all. We have to judge Ward by different standards. Generally if a top fighter like Ward announced a bout like this he should be slated but the fact is nobody will fight him. Periban is only taking the fight because at this point they feel he has nothing left to lose. He is already out of the title picture and will think what the heck, he could be rusty, I might have a punchers chance. In all honesty for Ward’s future it might be better if he looks bad in beating Periban. I can’t see him knocking Periban out as quick as DeGale simply because he isn’t that type of fighter. If he wins a decision but looks rusty it might give some of the other guys more confidence in facing him.
Who else
The other possible opponent mentioned was Paul Smith, similar situation. After losing twice to Arthur Abraham he is out of the picture so a fight with Ward is possibly a risk worth taking. Ward has already beaten Arthur Abraham, Carl Froch doesn’t want a rematch, I’d imagine Gilberto Ramirez would prefer to go down another route. The hope is that the next crop of champions and contenders will have more ambition. Both James DeGale and Andre Dirrell have expressed a willingness to fight him and hopefully Anthony Dirrell and George Groves will feel the same.
Motivation
Apparently Ward is walking around at 200lbs at present so will he have the determination to go through tough training camps to fight the likes of Periban and Paul Smith. I think he needs the prospect of a big fight to keep him going. This is why they went after Froch but as usual he is left disappointed. For those who solely blamed the late Dan Goosen for Wards inactivity need to look deeper. Simply nobody wants to fight him and until that changes he will struggle.
Pro-active
Roc Nation will quickly realise that in boxing it isn’t quite as simple as throwing money at a situation to make fights happen. Jay-Z may have to pay over the odds and Ward may have to move up to 175lbs for big fights at light heavyweight or fight at a catchweight to entice the likes of Golovkin.
Light Heavyweight?
In the end I think 175lbs is the road he will have to go down. GGG talks about facing Cotto, Canelo and Froch before Ward and there are very few marquee fights at Super Middleweight. I feel that the likes of Eleider Alvarez, Artur Beterbiev, Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson will be more willing to face Andre Ward and if he wants to get back to the top he needs to take the risk and move up in weight.
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