Andre Ward’s Enigma Code

By K.A.B - 03/30/2015 - Comments

ward63545By K.A.B: WBA super middleweight champion Andre “S.O.G” Ward (27-0 14 KOs) should be at the top of the 168 pound tree, his name should be glistening in the Las Vegas lights. However, the only thing that the boxing public around the world can see is the decimation of a once promising career.

Ward’s story should be what dreams are made off. He’s an Olympic Gold medalist in the 2004 Athens Olympics. He started his professional career different to most. Many boxers would be eased into the ranks by fighting no hopers and journeyman.

However, Ward was at least fighting live contenders, beatable contenders but at least they were of similar ages to himself so provided some sort of test physically if not on the same talent level. He entered the Super Six tournament as an outsider but ended up comprehensively beating everyone in front of him without seeming to break sweat.

At this point Ward is now the unified Super Middleweight Champion. He took on and systematically destroyed Chad Dawson in 2012, who was at the time the lineal Light Heavyweight Champion. From this moment onwards it should have been onwards and upwards with no obstacle in his way. However, it’s at this point where his boxing career slowly began to unravel and descend into obscurity.

The notion that Andre Ward is an unbeaten fighter sadly isn’t true anymore. In the ring perhaps he retains his (0). However, outside of the ring he has twice lost in the courtroom and his failure to accept those outcomes has been at his own detriment. So much so that even some of his biggest fans have turned against him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPW5OW5jJ54

After 2 years in the courtroom and a spell out injured, there should have been light at the tunnel for Ward. After signing with Roc Nation in January, big things were expected. All the big fights were within touching distance, however silence seems to have prevailed. Stripped by the WBC, stripped by the Ring, dropped from nearly all sanctioning rankings and now ordered by the WBA to face Carl Froch a second time or lose his last remaining title. Again with the WBA ultimatum, the conclusion should be simple, fight Froch again and beat him to shut the mouths of boxing pundits and sanctioning bodies around the world. After all, Ward comprehensively beat Froch in the Super Six final last time out in their fight in 2011, so he should be able to do it again. It’s on that point that it seems even more bizarre that all that is coming out of the Ward camp is silence.

It now appears likely that Ward is going to lose his last remaining title. Rumors are doing the rounds that Ward now wants out of his current contract with HBO. If this is true then it will be very sad news for boxing in general. Currently Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev both fight under the HBO banner so if Ward decides to jump ship, the hope that potential matchups could occur will jump ship with him. This will only result in him losing the last of his remaining fans. Ward was hoping he could ease back into boxing with bouts against light heavyweight Thomas Oosthuizen or Marco Antonio Periban. However, HBO is remaining firm on their stance not to accept these Fights for Ward so it would appear that it is either Froch or bust for Ward. If it is to be Froch, then he may have to renew his passport and accept the inevitability that the fight will take place in the UK. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom may have lost out to adviser Al-Haymon in the purse bid for the Andre Dirrell – James Degale fight, but this is different; Froch and Kell Brook are Matchroom’s pay-per-view stars. Froch vs. George Groves II created a £12m ($17m) purse for the two fighters to share nearly all of which came from UK revenue. Unless Roc Nation are willing to produce purse bids to even match half of this then Ward will be left with no choice but to either travel to the UK or stay firm and lose his last remaining title and fans that go with him.

I do hope that I am wrong and Ward packs his bags and boards the next jet over to London, but unfortunately I cannot see it happening. There is always the possibility that Froch will vacate his WBA super middleweight title instead of fighting Ward. However, Hearn has already reserved the venue and date, 30th of May at the Nottingham Forest football stadium. For those fans who don’t realize the relevance of the 30thnof May, that day is the UK Soccer FA Cup final. Fighting this day will create a huge overspill from FA Cup final viewers tuning into pay-per-view increasing revenues further.



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