By Allan Fox: Trainer Virgil Hunter says his fighter Andre Ward is in the same predicament as IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin as far as not being able to find high quality opposition for him to fight. Ward, 31, has been taking a lot of heat from boxing fans and the media for his choice opponent for his August 6 fight at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
Ward is fighting 39-year-old Alexander Brand. This is Ward’s interim fight to get him ready for an important fight against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev on November 19. Brand isn’t even a light heavyweight, and the fans don’t understand why Ward is fighting a non 175lb fighter.
The fans don’t understand why Ward is fighting an older guy like Brand rather than a younger fighter in the 175lb division.
“We’re in the same dilemma that supposedly Golovkin’s in and supposedly Kovalev’s in,” said Hunter to Fighthype.com in explaining Ward’s difficulty in getting high level opposition to fight him… “Who are we going to fight? Alexander Brand is way more formidable than Dominic Wade. We were willing to fight the other guy [Golovkin] when he didn’t have nobody to fight, but they didn’t want to fight.”
I think the boxing fans have an issue with Ward fighting an old guy in 39-year-old Alexander Brand from the 168lb division rather than the 175lb division. It’s one thing to pick an old timer to fight, but when you pick an old timer from the division below you, it just looks bad.
I don’t know why Roc Nation Sports couldn’t find a light heavyweight to fight rather than combing the super middleweight division for opposition. The only way it makes sense for Ward to be fighting an old fighter from the super middleweight division is if the objective for Roc Nation is to make sure Ward doesn’t get beaten, and to make sure he looks good in winning.
I think the chances of Ward looking good against Brand are very good. However, it’s not a good fight that will help Ward get ready for a murderous puncher like IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. Fighting Brand isn’t going to help Ward at all get ready for the Kovalev fight.
If Ward were going to be fighting someone from the 168lb division, then a fight against Brand would be perfect for him. But as far as Ward being helped by the Brand fight, I think he’s wasting his time.
Ward wanted an extra fight as a tune-up to get ready for Kovalev, but he should have just forgotten about the extra tune-up and gone straight into the fight. Ward’s last opponent, Sullivan Barrera, also wasn’t a good match to get him ready for Kovalev.
Barrera is too slow and doesn’t have a similar style to Kovalev. Ward beat Barrera by a 12 round decision last March in Oakland. What we saw in that fight was that Ward doesn’t have the punching power or the offensive skills to stand an exchange punches with light heavyweights. Ward now has to win by landing pot shots and defending.
“I don’t know why people would say anything because the ones who they say have a hard time getting an opponent, we’re willing to fight them. Kovalev got a fight with Chilemba because they’re promoted by the same company, but he didn’t have nobody to fight,” said Hunter. “This kid Joe Smith, who knocked out Fonfara, he would’ve been a good fight, but we wouldn’t have been able to get him because of Joe DeGuardia’s lawsuit against Roc Nation.”
Kovalev will be fighting this month on July 11 against Isaac Chilemba at the DIVS, in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The Kovalev-Chilemba fight will be televised on HBO Championship Boxing. It’s a much better fight on paper than Ward’s fight against Brand. Chilemba has a fighting style that is similar to that of Ward, and he’s also fast like him. Kovalev’s promoters at Main Events clearly put some thought into who would be the best opponent for him to get ready for Ward. Chilemba is someone that jumps out at you immediately when think of a fighter that is similar to Ward. Brand is not someone that you think about if you were to look for the ideal opponent to get ready for Kovalev. I think that was a fail by Roc Nation to choose Brand for Ward.