By Dan Ambrose: If WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) gets his way, he’ll be facing WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) next in a fight that would likely be on pay-per-view on HBO. Ward, 31, says he’s available for the fight against Golovkin right now. Ward says he’s currently walking around at 180lbs, according to Fightnews. He’s not too heavy right now to get down to 164 for a catch-weight fight against Golovkin. That’ll change though once Ward goes up to light heavyweight to start looking for big fights in that division.
Golovkin rehydrates to 170lbs for his fights, so he’d be likely giving away 10lbs or perhaps a little more than that depending on how high Ward rehydrates up to. Neither fighter has a scheduled fight on their plate at the moment.
Golovkin is waiting on the outcome of the November fight between WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Golovkin wants to face the winner of that fight for the WBC 160lb title, but there’s no guarantees that the Cotto-Canelo winner will choose to keep the WBC belt if it means that they’ll need to defend it against Golovkin. Tom Loeffler, the promoter for Golovkin, is currently looking to put together a fight for Golovkin against a still to be determined opponent.
“Andre Ward is available and we can make it happen. They want Golovkin to smile and wave and be the pretty boy and the promoters do the tough talk,” Ward said via Fightnews.com. “If I respond, then I’m the villain. If GGG wants to fight, come from behind the promoter, come from behind the trainer [Abel Sanchez], tell them to call HBO. I’ve already done this before the show because I knew you guys were going to ask me this, and let’s make it happen!”
Golovkin has other options for his next besides Ward. According to Steve Kim, Golden Boy Promotions is interested in matching IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux against Golovkin for October 17th at Madison Square Garden in New York. Golovkin-Lemieux would be a huge fight on HBO, and I believe the network would be all over that fight for October.
Given the choice between Lemieux and Ward for his next fight, I believe Golovkin will choose Lemieux next. It’s a guy in his own weight class, and it’s a fight that a lot of boxing fans would be eager to see. Lemieux would be the perfect opponent for Golovkin to get him ready for a big money fight against the winner of the Cotto-Canelo fight if they’re willing to face him.
Ward reportedly would like to take the Golovkin fight first in his next fight before moving up to light heavyweight to take on IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (27-0-1, 24 KOs) for 2016. It would be a lot easier for Ward to face Golovkin right now at 164 than it’ll be for Ward to go up to 175 to take the Kovalev fight and then move back down to super middleweight to face Golovkin at a catch-weight of 164 pounds.
I think it’s unlikely that Loeffler will make the Golovkin-Ward fight right now, because it would be a case of Golovkin having to put on weight to fight Ward at a catch-weight at super middleweight, but then having to drop back down to likely 155lbs for title shot against the Cotto vs. Canelo winner. It doesn’t work out well for Golovkin to have to shoot up to 164 for Ward and then immediately strip off a bunch of weight to take on Cotto or Canelo. Golovkin is better off staying where he’s at in the middleweight division, taking the Lemieux fight next if it’s there, and then facing the winner of the Cotto vs. Canelo fight in early 2016.
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