By Allan Fox: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) was foiled in an attempt to break free from his promotional contract with his promoter Joe Goosen. The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) chose to uphold Goosen’s contract with the 29-year-old Ward.
It’s unclear if Ward will choose to continue to try and get out from his contract. According to ESPN, Ward is mulling over what to do next.
Goosen said to ESPN “Now I look forward to getting back to promoting Andre’s next bout, as well as helping him become the No.1 fighter in the sport.”
Hopefully, Ward doesn’t miss a lot of action trying to get out of the contract because a lot of fighters end up staying inactive for long stretches of time when trying to get out of fight contracts, and that’s something that Ward can’t really afford to do because he’s only fought once in the past year and half since his win over Carl Froch in the Super Six tournament finals in November 2011.
Ward took 9 months off before facing Chad Dawson last September in beating him by a 10th round TKO. Ward has now been out of action for the past 9 months and it’s possible he may not be back until or even later.
Ward injured his right shoulder training for a fight with Kelly Pavlik, and the shoulder needed surgery to repair the problem. Ward is now just starting to spar for the first time since the surgery, and he’s reportedly feeling good.
The best thing that Ward can do is get busy with his career because fighting once a year isn’t going to help him much if he wants to become a big star in the sport. He was active during the Super Six tournament, but he’s kind of disappeared since the tournament ended. Ward doesn’t need to end up missing the best years by staying out of the ring while waiting for this or that to get done. He should be facing contenders while waiting for bigger fights to happen.
Comments are closed.