By Allan Fox: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) says he doesn’t see a point in him fighting IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins unless he wants the fight with him and starts calling him out in a persistent manner.

Ward doesn’t feel that the soon to be 49-year-old Hopkins wants a fight with him, so he’s not going to push for it on his own out of respect for him. Ward says he would prefer to fight guys that are younger than Hopkins. Ward is facing unbeaten 28-year-old Edwin Rodriguez (24-0, 16 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, in Ontario, California, USA.

Ward said to the Boxing Channel “I would have to be a situation where he called me out and wouldn’t leave me alone type of thing…I agree, it would be a pay-per-view fight…but if he says it’s not a fight that he wants, what do I look like trying to chase or call [him out]. I’m just not that type of guy. Honestly, I’m more into fighting guys from my era.”

Ward probably isn’t missing out on much by not fighting Hopkins because it’s not a fight that would likely sell well if they made it a PPV bout. They could put the fight on PPV, but I doubt it would bring in significant numbers. It’s not that Hopkins isn’t a good fighter, because he can still fight. But it’s not realistic to assume that boxing fans will want to pay to see a fight that would be considered a mismatch by fans. The only way that fans might have some interest is if Ward were to struggle hard to beat Edwin Rodriguez this Saturday night.

If Ward shows vulnerability in that fight, then some fans might want to see what Hopkins would do with Ward as well. But it’s still a huge reach to ask boxing fans to pay to see a Ward-Hopkins fight on PPV. Don’t get me wrong; a fight between Ward and Hopkins would bring in good numbers on cable if it were put together, but that would be regular cable rather than PPV. There’s a big difference. Fans might want to see a fight between them on regular HBO or Showtime, but it’s not likely that those fans would want to pay $59.99 to see Ward fight Hopkins on PPV.

A fight between Ward and Hopkins would be difficult to put together due to Hopkins fighting on Showtime and Ward on HBO. Those types of fights create huge roadblocks to putting together match-ups because a fighter has a contract with one cable network and they might have to get permission from them in order to fight on their rival cable network.