Just to be clear, I have not made an official decision about the weight class I'll be fighting in. Still resting, will speak to my team soon

— Andre S.O.G. Ward (@andreward) June 24, 2015

By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) says he still hasn’t made up his mind about which weight class – 168 or 175 – that he’ll be fighting at. This comes after his easy victory over a hulking Paul Smith last Saturday night.

Smith came into the fight weighing over 180, and it gave Ward a good indication about what it’ll be like if he moves up to the light heavyweight division. However, Smith didn’t have the talent or the consistent punching power to give Ward a true test of what it will be like when/if he moves up to 175.

The 32-year-old Smith, who appeared to be carrying around a lot of excess fat on his frame, wasn’t as solid or as powerful as the guys that Ward would be expected to fight like Sergey Kovalev, Andrzej Fonfara, Artur Beterbiev and Adonis Stevenson. That’s why the fight with Smith was pretty much a waste of time for Ward in giving him a true hint about what he’ll be dealing with once he moves up in weight.

Ward would have been better off forgetting about the Smith fight and instead taking an intermediate challenge like Fonfara. If Ward could have handled Fonfara’s power and badly schooled him, then I think it would be a good move for him to move up in weight to light heavyweight. But without a fight of that nature, Ward is flying blind if he moves up in weight right now.

The Smith fight was like Ward going backwards to the early stages of his career when he was fighting lower level opposition right after he turned pro. Smith may have weighed as much as a light heavyweight, but he wasn’t properly trained from the looks of him, and he was carrying around too much fight. If Ward faces a solid light heavyweight like Fonfara, he’ll have a test that will surely let him know whether he belongs in the light heavyweight division or not.

If Ward doesn’t move up to light heavyweight then he’s likely going to be stuck defending his title against the regular contenders for the remainder of his career. There aren’t big fights for him at this weight class any longer. Carl Froch won’t fight him, and James DeGale and George Groves are too limited in talent to give him any trouble. Besides that, I don’t see either of them electing to fight Ward, ever.

Ward doesn’t really have to rest too much after the Smith fight because he wasn’t hit very much in the fight. What Ward doesn’t need to do is going on another long, long rest like he did after he won the Super Six tournament in 2011. Ward rested for nine months before he fought Chad Dawson. After Ward’s win over Edwin Rodriguez in 2013, he was out of the ring for a year and a half. Ward needs to forget about resting and instead try and fight as often as possible.