Andre Ward wants a simple tune-up: Is that too much to ask for?

By Scott Gilfoid: The highly talented WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) wants just one simple tune-up before he steps it up and starts taking on the big guns again at 168. Ward is coming off surgery, and he doesn’t want to jump straight into a really tough fight for his first fight back.

However, HBO isn’t interested in televising fights against the guys – Caleb Truax, Dimitry Sartison and Stanyslav Kashtanov. They wanted Ward to fight Edwin Rodriguez, but Ward’s team tried to make that fight he reportedly said no to a huge $800,000 offer, according Sports Illustrated.

Ward told Chris Mannix from Sports Illustrated “All I’m asking is that [HBO] respects the [shoulder] injury. I’m looking to make a solid fight, similar to what they are doing with Cotto and Chavez. From there, we can talk about who is next. Look at what is going on with Cotto and Chavez, the direction they are taking with them. I have earned that.”

I totally agree with Mr. Ward. He’s earned the right for an easy fight. Let the man have an easy fight for goodness sake. He did spank Carl Froch in the Super Six tournament after laboring away for 2 solid years in beating one high quality super middleweight after another. Ward deserves a soft touch, doesn’t he? Look all the easy marks that Chavez Jr. has had on HBO – Marco Antonio Rubio, Peter Mandredo Jr., Sebastian Zbik, etc.

Shouldn’t Ward be able to get a nice lower tier fighter in order to test out his shoulder?

Ward doesn’t understand why HBO is agreeing to televise Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s fight against Brian Vera on September 28th and Miguel Cotto’s fight against Delvin Rodriguez on October 5th when those fights are bouts that are pretty much guaranteed to be mismatches from the word go.

Ward feels that if those guys get to have their easy mismatches televised, then he should at least be allowed to have his mismatch televised. After all, he’s the one coming off an injury, not those guys. Chavez Jr. and Cotto didn’t tear up their shoulders and require surgery to have the repaired, so are they allowed to have their non-fan friendly mismatches televised?