By Allan Fox: Egis Klimas, the manager for former light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, says that Andre Ward must face Kovalev in the rematch for him to prove that he’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in boxing like he thinks he is.
Klimas points out that a lot of the fans believe that Ward lost his fight against Kovalev on November 19, and he needs to show that he’s the clear No.1 by fighting him again. Ward beat Kovalev by a narrow margin on all three of the judges’ scorecards in winning by the scores 114-113, 114-113 and 114-113.
The judges’ view appears to run counter to the opinions of the vast majority of the boxing world, who saw Kovalev as the winner. When you have the minority picking the winner against an overwhelming majority, it tends to cancel out the win. That’s the unfortunate about controversial decision.
If the boxing public doesn’t agree with the set of judges that scored the fight, then the win loses meaning. Ward got the win, but he’s not seen as the true winner in the minds of many fans. If Ward decides to retire with this being his last fight of his career, then it would a bad way for him to go out in my view in retiring off of a controversial win.
Klimas said this to Fighthype.com about the Ward-Kovalev rematch.
“The promoters are working on it,” said Klimas about the Ward vs. Kovalev rematch. “It all depends on Andre Ward.”
Ward is talking about how everyone involved need to act as if he won the fight, whatever that means. In breaking down Ward’s code talk, I think what he wants is to be given a lot of credit for the victory, and he might want the contract to be reworked for him to get a bigger cut of the revenue for the rematch. If the contracts already have what Ward’s percentage will be in the rematch, then there’s no real point in Kovalev and his promoter Kathy Duva to rework the numbers to please Ward.
To be sure, Ward can retire from boxing if he wants. He wouldn’t be stuck with a deal that he doesn’t like if he retires, but then again, he wouldn’t be getting the payday for the fight. It would be a self-defeating move for Ward for him to retire without fighting Kovalev again. For Kovalev and his promoter Kathy Duva to want to renegotiate the original contract, they would have to believe in their minds that Ward is 100 percent serious about retiring. If they think that there’s no way for them to get the rematch with Ward other than reworking the contract to sweeten the numbers for Ward, then they might go ahead and make that move.
It would all depend on how serious they believe Ward is about retiring. If Kovalev mainly wants to win back one or more of his lost titles, then he can choose to ignore Ward and let him retire rather than changing the contract. The bad thing about that is that Kovalev won’t be able to fight for all three of the titles he lost if Ward vacates.
The sanctioning bodies are not going to let Kovalev fight for all three of the vacated titles. He’ll likely only get the chance to fight for one of them. The other two sanctioning bodies will order other fighters to fight for their belts. Kovalev would likely get stuck fighting unbeaten Artur Beterbiev (11-0, 11 KOs) for one of the titles in a fight that would quite possibly make considerably less money than a rematch with Ward.
Beterbiev looks very hard to beat right now. If Kovalev loses to him, then he could see his paydays going down. As such, it would seem like the smarter move for Kovalev and Duva to work a deal with Ward to get that payday, and then possibly get another fight against Ward is possible.
The match-up is just too good between them for the two fighters to walk away after two fights. They can continue to make good money facing each other before the ultimate winner has to face the very dangerous Beterbiev. That might be the end game for them, because Beterbiev looks out of this world good right now. He’s a bad match-up for Ward and Kovalev. Beterbiev’s style is all wrong for those guys.
In speaking about why Ward is talking about retirement from boxing, Klimas said, “After he faced Sergey Kovalev, probably that’s why he’s talking of retirement. I don’t know what’s in his mind. Next time when Sergey has a chance [to knockout Ward], he needs to take it; not leave it in the judges’ hands. If Ward claims he’s the pound for pound, he’s the best, he definitely needs to step into the ring, and because everybody is talking about he didn’t win the [Kovalev] fight. But if he thinks he’s the best and he wants to prove it, then he needs to step back into the ring and prove he’s really the pound for pound fighter, he’s the best,” said Klimas.
Ward doesn’t want to retire because he’s afraid of fighting Kovalev again. That’s not what I believe. I think Ward wants to make sure he’s paid well for the rematch like a champion. What’s not to know is if Ward is really committed to carrying out his retirement talk. It would be the nuclear option. If Ward retires, then it hurts him and Kovalev, as well as the top contenders that would want to fight him like Beterbiev. Everyone loses. There are no winners if Ward retires at this point.
I don’t think Ward is going to be given the No.1 pound for pound status in boxing. The way he fought Kovalev last November, it’s not the type of style that is picked for the No. pound for pound category. Ward will likely fight the same way against Kovalev in the rematch as well, because he’s not going to be able to slug with him. Ward will smother Kovalev for 12 rounds on the inside, and hope he can win a decision fighting like that. When you compare that style of fighting to exciting fighters like Roman Gonzalez, it’s no comparison. Ward is not as exciting as Gonzalez in my view.
Kovalev’s trainer John David Jackson believes that we’ve seen the best of the 32-year-old Ward, and that he’s not going to be able to do any better in the second fight. Jackson sees Ward as being stuck with the only game plan that he has in trying to smother Kovalev for 12 rounds like he did on November 19. If Ward tries to fight Kovalev, he’ll get knocked out by getting countered. Ward won’t be able to increase his low volume attack against Kovalev, Jackson points out. It would be suicide for Ward to throw more punches, because that would play into Kovalev’s hands entirely, making it easier for him to counter. Jackson plans on working on Kovalev’s inside game for the Ward rematch so that he’s better able to nullify his only option.
“If he wants to retire, then there’s probably a certain reason why he’s thinking that,” said Jackson about Ward. “I can’t see what’s in his head. I’d rather see the rematch. It may or may not happen. If he retires, then Sergey fights somebody else for the vacant belt. What can Ward really do better in the second fight? If he punches more, then he’s going to have to open himself up to getting countered. He can’t throw more punches. If he throws more volume, he’s going to open himself up. On the other hand, Sergey can do a lot of things better than he did in the first fight. His conditioning can be a lot better.”
“He kind of faded down the stretch,” said Jackson about Kovalev tiring in the second half of the fight. “He can cut off the ring a lot better, and go to the body a little bit more. There are things he can do that will make things a lot easier for him. Sergey can gain more in the rematch than Ward. He can improve a lot more than Ward. I had it 9-3, 8-4 [for Kovalev]. Sergey won most of the first six rounds. Sergey had it 5-1 after 6. He [Ward] ran the first six rounds, Ward ran. He ran. In the second half, he started to fight, but he definitely didn’t win the fight,” said Jackson.