By Scott Gilfoid: After signing with Roc Nation Sports on Friday, WBA Super middleweight champion Andre Ward (27-0, 14 KOs) is talking about getting back in the ring in March or April for his first fight in 2015.
Ward hasn’t fought since November 2013, so he’s going to take it slowly and not jump into a fight against a dangerous guy at this point, even though Ward has the kind of talent that would lead him to victory against anyone in the division.
The time off from the ring means that Ward will need to play it safe for a fight or two while he gets the rust out of his game.
After Ward gets his tune-up bouts out of the way, he’s still not looking at really any significant fights at 168 unfortunately. The top five contenders the World Boxing Association has listed for Ward are as follows: Fedor Chudinov, Gilberto Ramirez, Ben McCulloch, Felix Sturm and George Groves. Of that bunch, the only guy I see agreeing to fight Ward is McCulloch, a fighter who I see more as a fringe level #15 bottom feeder rather than a true top guy five guy.
Getting Groves, Ramirez, Sturm and Chudinov to agree to a fight with Ward may prove to be humanely impossible. I just don’t see any of those guys ever agreeing to a fight with Ward until he starts showing signs of being old and shot. With Ward nearing 31, I don’t see that happening for many, many years.
“I would like to get in the ring sometime in late March or early to mid-April,” Ward said via Fighthype.com. “I got to talk to Virg [trainer Virgil Hunter] and see what he’s comfortable with because he’s the man with the vision and the game plan.”
Ward would likely be more than pleased to fight guys like Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham, Sturm, Groves and James DeGale. I don’t see those fights happening.
Ward already beat Froch, Kessler and Abraham, and I don’t think any of them wants to get a second whipping from him. Groves and DeGale appear to be on their own path in heading in different directions from Ward. It’s too bad, because it would be nice to see what Ward would do to both of them.
The Dirrell brothers could be possibilities for Ward in the future, but that’s obviously a big step for Ward because those guys are so fast and powerful. Ward isn’t going to want to get inside the ring with advanced fighters like that given his long time off from the boxing ring.
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