By Allan Fox: The World Boxing Council has decided to change WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward’s title to an Emeritus title due to his injury to his shoulder. In doing this there are some boxing fans who believe the WBC has done this in order to have someone else fighting for the WBC 168 pound title in order to keep sanction fees revenue flowing in.
Ward hasn’t fought since last September when he defeated Chad Dawson by a 10th round TKO. Ward was then scheduled to face Kelly Pavlik, but he suffered a shoulder injury while getting ready for that fight and needed surgery to repair the problem. Ward recently returned to training and it’s going to be a while before he’s ready to fight, likely by July.
Ward will get a chance to fight for the WBC title once his shoulder has healed and he’s ready to return to the ring. In the meantime, the WBC will either give Ward’s WBC title to one of the top contenders or have two of the top contenders fight for the title, which seems more likely.
I don’t know if it’s worth it for Ward to fight for the WBC title to recapture the belt. Ward already has the WBA title, and he doesn’t need the WBC title if it means that he’s going to have to fight someone like Sakio Bika again, someone that Ward already beat by a 12 round decision in 2010.
Ward being forced to fight Bika again just to recapture what he should arguably still have in his possession might not be an appealing thing for him because it’s forcing Ward to take another less than appealing fight.
Ward would like to fight Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch again. Those are the fights that Ward wants. There’s not much else for him at 168 other than maybe someone like Robert Stieglitz or George Groves if he could get a fight against either of them, which seems doubtful.
Comments are closed.