Andre Ward’s days at 168 are done, says Rafael

By Boxing News - 10/03/2015 - Comments

wardBy Allan Fox: It appears that WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) is done with fighting in the 168 pound weight class.

According to Dan Rafael, Ward won’t be fighting at super middleweight any longer. Rafael says the 31-year-old Ward will be moving up to the light heavyweight division (175) for his next fight, which could take place on the undercard of the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto card on November 21st at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

”He (Ward) is working on a deal that if completed would have him on the card and as a light heavy. His days at 168 are done,” Rafael said via his chat last Friday on ESPN.com.

This move by Ward obviously effects a potential fight between him and IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. With Ward moving up to 175, Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler now have no reason to fight Ward. If anyone gives Golovkin grief about not fighting Ward, he can tell them that Ward is fighting two divisions above his weight class.

Ward fought his last fight at light heavyweight against Britain’s Paul Smith at a catch-weight of 172 pounds last June. Ward came in at 171.8, while Smith came in over the limit at 176.4. For Ward, this was approximately four pounds over the 168lb division limit.

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Ward’s management is still working on a deal for him to fight on the Cotto-Canelo fight card on HBO pay-per-view on 11/21. It could be a well-known opponent that Ward faces for the card. There are only a small number of familiar fighters in that weight class, so it could be anybody.

Hopefully, Ward doesn’t face another super middleweight that is being pulled up to light heavyweight like in his last fight against Paul Smith. You can’t really say you’re fighting at light heavyweight if you’re going to be fighting a super middleweight who has eaten his way to the division.

Ward has found it tough for him to get quality fights at 168 since he captured the Super Six tournament in 2011. None of the top fighters like Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham and Carl Froch showed much interest in fighting Ward again after losing to him in the Super Six tournament.

The younger fighters like James DeGale, Badou Jack and George Groves also haven’t come rushing to Ward’s door to try and make fights happen. The reality of the situation is that there aren’t any big names at 168 any longer.

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Even if those fighters did want to fight Ward, those aren’t big fights. Ward can get bigger fights at 175 by going after fighters like Sergey Kovalev, Jean Pascal and Adonis Stevenson.

It’s unclear at this point whether Ward will be able to make things happen in the light heavyweight division. He could prove to be too weak for the division. There a lot of big punchers at 175 like Andrzej Fonfara, Eleider Alvarez, Kovalev, Pascal, Artur Beterbiev, Juergen Braehmer, Yunieski Gonzalez and Sullivan Barrera. Ward is going to need to prove that he can hang with those type of punchers.

It’s a good sign that Ward was able to stop Paul Smith in the 9th round last June. However, Smith shook Ward up with a big right hand he hit him with in the 7th. The fighters in the light heavyweight division are better punchers than Smith for the most part, and Ward will need to prove that he can take their power without folding.

If Ward can’t handle their power and he starts losing a lot, then he’s going to need to drain back down to 168 to resume dominating the division. Ward could find himself in the same position as Adrien Broner with his problems handling the bigger punchers in moving up in weight.



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