Andre Ward will fight twice before Sergey Kovalev match, says Duva

By Boxing News - 02/11/2016 - Comments

ward56By Dan Ambrose: Kathy Duva, the promoter for unbeaten light heavyweight contender Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) and IBF/WBA/WBO 175lb champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, says that Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) will be fighting twice before his November fight against Kovalev.

Duva says it’s Ward’s plans to get in two interim fights before he faces Kovalev. Duva thinks this is a risky thing for Ward to do because it means there are two chances that he can get beaten before he ever gets to a fight against Kovalev.

The thing is if Ward loses to anyone before November, then that means there will not be a Kovalev-Ward fight. Duva would obviously be happy if one of her Main Events fighters like Barrera is the guy that beats Ward.

Ward will be taking a dangerous tune-up fight next month against Sullivan Barrera on March 26 on HBO from Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. That’s not a sure thing win for Ward. Barrera is a bigger puncher than Ward, and he comes from Cuba, where he was an outstanding amateur. Barrera has the kind of punching power that could give the 31-year-old Ward a great deal of problems on 3/26.

“Ward plans to fight twice before he will fight Sergey,” Duva said to RingTV.com. “That was Ward’s term. That means that Ward will risk messing up plans for Kovalev-Ward (most definitely not “Ward-Kovalev”!) two times before November. If someone is going to beat Ward before he gets to Kovalev, I would prefer to be the promoter of that fighter than not. And this is a great opportunity for Sullivan. So yes, if Sullivan wins, that would be just fine with Main Events.”

If HBO is going to allow Ward to have two fights before he faces Kovalev in November, then this means that HBO isn’t counting Ward’s withdrawal last November from the Miguel Cotto vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight card as the first fight of his three-fight deal with them. HBO might regret letting Ward get a reset on his three-fight contract if he pulls out yet again from another fight.

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If Ward gets hurt while training for the Barrera fight and then needs to pull out again, then HBO would be stuck having to find another fight to fill in for that date. I doubt they’ll be able to do that. In the meantime, they would seeing Ward back out of yet another fight. That’s definitely not good.

I have a feeling that Ward will never face Kovalev. If he does fight him, I don’t see it happening this year. I think either Ward gets injured while training for one of his tune-up fights, or the negotiations for his next tune-up takes too much time, making it impossible for Ward to face Kovalev by November.

I think the Kovalev-Ward fight is going to be pushed back into 2017. HBO will have something to say about it, of course. They give up on the idea of putting on the fight if Ward keeps getting injured and pulls out of cards.



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