By Dan Ambrose: Abel Sanchez, the trainer for WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (29-0, 26 KOs), says a fight between Golovkin and WBA 168 pound champ Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KOs) is a realistic option in the future, but only if Ward understands who the top guy is in this fight. In other words, who the A-side money guy is and that’s obviously Golovkin, in Sanchez’s eyes.
Sanchez said “We are ready to fight Andre Ward, but only if he will understand that Gennady is a bigger star, bigger draw.”
I could be wrong, but I think what Sanchez seems to be saying here is that Ward is going to need to take the lesser money in a fight if he wants to fight a star like Golovkin. Both guys fight on HBO, to be sure, but Golovkin is bringing in monster ratings for them right now, and HBO president Ken Hershman is talking about him evolving into a pay-per-view attraction for his network. Ward isn’t in nearly as a good a position as Golovkin is right now.
So what we’re probably looking at is Ward having to agree to take the small money in a fight against Golovkin. Just how small a percentage that would be offered to Ward for a fight with Golovkin is the big question? It could be as low as 15% and as high as 40%, but it’s not likely that Ward will get offered anything close to a 50-50 cut. Ward is a proud fighter, and he’s not likely going to be agreeable to accepting anything less than a 50-50 deal.
So by offering Ward a smaller slice of the financial pie, Golovkin’s people would basically be putting Ward on the spot where he would have to take what’s offered to him or else be satisfied defending his WBA super middleweight title against the contenders willing to fight him.
We’ve already seen that guys like Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, Robert Stieglitz, George Groves and James DeGale aren’t beating down Ward’s door to try and get a fight against him. He’s kind of stuck right now where his only real options are to defend his belt against the challengers. Ward would be better off vacating his belt and getting in line to force a fight against one of the champions.
Ward hasn’t fought since last November when he defeated Edwin Rodriguez by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. That was Ward’s only fight in 2013. Before that, Ward fought once in 2012 in defeating Chad Dawson by a 10th round TKO.
Ward hasn’t been fighting regularly, as in 2-3 times per year, since 2011. His career slowed dramatically after he captured the Super Six Tournament trophy with a win over Carl Froch in late 2011.
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