(Photo credit: Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/Roc Nation Sports) By Dan Ambrose: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) is still a possibility for the November 21st Miguel Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez undercard on HBO pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports are working on setting up a fight for Ward at light heavyweight for the card. Roc Nation is working on a three-fight deal with HBO for Ward. HBO is usually pretty selective in the fights that they agree to for their fighters on their network.
It might be a good thing if they can get the contract completely because then boxing fans will potentially see Ward matched up against a quality opponent for November 21st rather than a bottom feeder.
Ward, 31, will be the co-feature bout if they can get the deal done. Ward isn’t saying who the opponent will be, but it’s supposed to be a significant name in the 175lb division. There’s only a small handful of interesting opponents in the light heavyweight division for a guy like Ward to fight.
If it’s not one of the following names than it’s probably not going to be much of a step up from Ward’s last fight: Jean Pascal, Andrzej Fonfara, Artur Beterbiev, Bernard Hopkins, Eleider Alvarez, Lucian Bute, Isaac Chilemba, Marcus Browne, Yunieski Gonzalez or Sullivan Barrera. Those are the best of 1st tier top 15 contenders. The fighters that bring up the rear are the likes of Dominic Boesel, Mehdi Amar, Erik Skoglund, and Sean Monaghan.
Having Ward face a fringe contender on the Cotto-Canelo fight card would be a waste a time for Ward, and especially a waste of time for the boxing fans who are paying to see the fight on HBO PPV. The fans already saw Ward in a mismatch against Paul Smith in his last fight in June. They don’t need to see Ward put in with some other guy on his last legs coming off of two
The way that Ward’s negotiations are dragging out for his fight on the card, it must be someone good that he’s going to be facing. I can’t imagine the negotiations dragging out like this for a fight between Ward and a fringe bottom ranked contender or another 2nd tier guy like Paul Smith.
“Roc Nation Sports, Cotto’s promoter, continues to work on hammering out a deal that would see super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) appear in the co-feature in a light heavyweight fight,” Dan Rafael said via ESPN.com. “If the deal is finalized, it will mark the start of a three-fight contract between Ward and HBO.”
Ward has done almost nothing since winning the Super Six tournament in 2011. Instead of that huge victory being the start of huge things for Ward, it has been almost the end for him. Ward has fought only three times in the last four years in beating Chad Dawson, Edwin Rodriguez and Paul Smith. If Ward keeps fighting at this pace for the next four years, he’ll have little to show for himself by the time he turns 35 in 2019.
There are two world title fights on the Cotto-Canelo card, but in the lower weight classes unfortunately. It’s unclear how much interest there will be for the smaller fighters that will be on the card. WBC super featherweight champion Takashi Miura (29-2-2, 22 KOs) will be defending his title against Francisco Vargas (22-0-1. 16 KOs), and IBF bantamweight champion Randy Caballero will be defending his title against Lee Haskins (32-3. 14 KOs). It’s too bad Roc Nation Sports couldn’t get some high quality welterweights, junior middleweights or middleweights to fight on the card. They would make it a lot more interesting for the boxing fans in my view. The fighters that they’re including on the card aren’t household names among the casual fans of the sport.
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