By Allan Fox: 31-year-old WBA Super Word super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) is still possible for the undercard of the November 21st pay-per-view card headlined by WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) on HBO from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We think it would be good for him [Ward], a showcase pay-per-view, it could be good for the pay-per-view and he showed interest in being on the undercard,” Michael Yorkmark, CEO of Roc Nation, told ESPN Deportes.
There’s no word about who Ward would be fighting, but super middleweight Marco Antonio Periban is one of the names rumored to be a possible opponent for Ward. Periban isn’t ranked in the top 15 at 168, so it wouldn’t be a great fight if that’s who winds up being the one he faces.
Ward will likely take the fight at 175 or perhaps another catch-weight in the light heavyweight division. Ward’s last fight was at a catch-weight of 172 for his fight against Paul Smith last June. Ward won the fight by a 9th round knockout.
Ward has shown interest in fighting IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin at super middleweight, but that fight does not look like it has any realistic chance of happening soon or possibly ever.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler recently said that he wants Golovkin to fight the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight, and then look to go after the other champion Andy Lee. Ward doesn’t figure to be in Golovkin’s future, especially with Ward seemingly heading in the direction of the light heavyweight division.
It may not be an opportunity for Ward to fight in a headlining act like he’s been accustomed to in the past, but at least he’ll get a payday out of the fight and will get at least the chance to fight in the co-feature of the card. That will give Ward a lot of visibility because the fight will probably bring in as much as 600,000 PPV buys on HBO, and many more boxing fans will see the fight on replay.
It obviously won’t be as many fans as it would be if the card were to be televised on regular HBO or if it were to be shown on one of the free television channels like NBC, CBS or ESPN. It’s worth it for Ward to get some badly needed visibility because he’s fought so seldom in the last four years since winning the Super Six tournament in 2011.
Ward has fought only three times since the Super Six tournament ended in 2011. I’m not sure that Ward ever planned on seeing so little action after he left the tournament, but that’s how it’s worked out.
Hopefully, Ward doesn’t have a negative view of him fighting on an undercard on the Cotto-Canelo card, because if Ward turns down this card, it might be a while before he fights again. Ward needs to use every chance he can get to regain the popularity that he lost with his inactivity in the last four years.
Ward should try and make his fighting style a little more entertaining as well by him mixing it up more, wrestling less, and keeping the action in the center of the ring rather than against the ropes. Ward was able to beat a number of fighters in the Super Six tournament by essentially mugging them on the inside, but that kind of fighting style might not be pleasing to the average boxing fans, who prefer to see slugging and nonstop action rather than grappling on the inside like we saw in Ward’s fights against Carl Froch, Allan Green, and Sakio Bika.
Comments are closed.