By Dan Ambrose: The Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto card will be without the co-feature bout between unbeaten Andre Ward (28-0, 14 KOs) and Alexander Brand (24-0, 19 KOs) due to Ward experiencing swelling on one of his knees, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
The problem is bad enough to where the 31-year-old Ward needs to pull out of the card. This is bad for the Cotto-Canelo fight, because it’s an HBO PPV card, and the other fights on the undercard are generally obscure fighters that the casual boxing fans have never heard of before.
To be sure, the hardcore boxing fans have heard of the fighters, but there aren’t enough hardcore fans to make the fight a success on PPV.
This is bad for HBO, because they just signed Ward to a 3-fight deal with HBO Boxing. If Ward is too injured to fight, then it’s going to push things forward. You have to wonder whether Ward’s knee issues will be a lingering thing that could negatively impact his ability to fight in the future. He is 31, and once a fighter starts dealing with knee problems, it can be a problem that lingers on and one. Look at Juan Manuel Marquez. He hasn’t fought since early 2014 due to a knee problem.
“He hasn’t been able to get the swelling under control and it has prohibited him from training the way he needs to,” the source said via ESPN.com. “It’s nothing serious but the fight is in two weeks and everyone had to make a decision.”
It’s unclear if Ward will still be able to complete the 3-fight contract with HBO or if the contract will need to be reworked. If Ward is able to do the 3 fights by the end of 2016, then he’ll need push his timeline to get him to fight three times in likely just one year unless something opens up in December for him to get his first fight done.
You’d hate to see Ward having to try and fight 3 times in 2016 in order to complete his HBO contract. I don’t think that’s realistic. Ward fighting twice is realistic, but you might not get two really good fights.
Ward’s fight against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev is a given for late 2016, but the other fights are the unknowns, especially if he’s going to be dealing with a knee problem. HBO can certainly look at reworking the contract if it looks like Ward won’t be able to get it done by the end of 2016, but I think it might be a problem for Ward if he’s only going to get a tune-up fight and then him having to go straight into a fight against Kovalev.
That would be tough on Ward. He would be better off going from an easy tune-up fight to a mid-level fighter, and then finally a fight against Kovalev. I don’t think that’s going to be possible for 2016 unless Ward can fight this December.
Ward needs to be fighting on a frequent basis if he’s to make up for all the lost time that he’s had in the last four years. He’s not been active fighter since 2011, as his fights have been well spaced out during the last four years.
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