By Scott Gilfoid: HBO has no interest in former WBA super middleweight champion Dimitri Sartison, Caleb Truax or interim WBA World super middleweight champion Stanyslav Kashtanov to face WBA 168 lb. champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) for his next fight on September 28th, according to Dan Rafael.
HBO wants a fighter with some kind of name to face Ward, and the above mentioned fighters aren’t recognizable names to casual boxing fans in the U.S.
That leaves the 29-year-old Ward with very few options. One less than appealing possibility for Ward is former WBO super middleweight champion Zsolt Erdei. His promoter is pushing hard for the fight with Ward. However, Erdie turns 40 on Wednesday, is coming off of a loss to Denis Grachev, and he’s just as much of an unknown as to U.S casual fans as Startison, Truax and Kashtanov.
If HBO has no interest in spending money in putting on a fight between Ward and one of those three fighters, then it’s hard to imagine them jumping for joy to see Ward fight 40-year-old Erdie given that he’s the same boat as the other unknowns.
Erdie was a decent champion years ago, but he never fought anyone good, so it was hard to really know how good Erdie was in his prime. He’s clearly not in his prime anymore, and I’d very surprised if HBO says yes to that mismatch.
Edwin Rodriguez would be a good option to fight Ward, but his promoter Lou Dibella isn’t interested in letting Rodriguez fight Ward, according to Rafael. I’m not surprised about that either, because Rodriguez would be easy pickings for Ward with the way that Rodriguez leaves himself open with his badly telegraphed looping shots. Ward beat him with straight punches and make him look silly.
There’s not much left in the division. If they could get one of the Dirrell brothers to fight Ward, I think that would be an outstanding fight, but the Dirrells know Ward and I don’t think it’s a fight that can be made with either of them.
Some of the other guys like James DeGale, Thomas Oosthuzen and Badou Jack would be decent opponents. But I can’t see HBO saying yes to those fights either, and I doubt any of them would want to fight a talented guy like Ward.
It might be that Ward and his promoter will have to scout out a light heavyweight to look for a fight, because if not they’re going to end up with an awful opponent that HBO won’t say yes to. They need to get someone like Lucian Bute, Jean Pascal, Ismayl Sillakh or Denis Grachev.
Ward’s problems trying to find an opponent that HBO would say yes to would be solved if only Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler were to say yes to a fight with him, but neither of them are in a hurry to fight him now. It’s not surprising because Ward spanked both of them with ease in the Super Six Tournament. Ward also can’t get WBO champion Robert Stieglitz to face him either.
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