By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: Super middleweight king Andre Ward upcoming fight against Alexander Brand, that was set to be on the undercard of Miguel Cotto /Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is off due to an injury to Ward. The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) refused to sanction his original opponent Rohan Murdock citing it was a mismatch in favor of Ward.
Brand was found as a replacement, but “suddenly” Ward has an injury. Now if the injury is legit then so be it. The injury might be legit because injuries have kept him from the ring on many occasions. But this one seems different to me. I don’t think this has anything to do with getting back at NSAC because they don’t losing anything by Ward pulling out.
This has more to do with Gennady Golovkin (Trip). A couple weeks ago while addressing some reporters about refusing to fight Canelo at a catch weight, Trip mentioned that he fights at middleweight and super middleweight. That super middleweight crack probably hit Ward’s ears with the quickness causing them to “suddenly” have an injured knee. Again, if it’s legit then so be it.
Does anybody remember last year when Canelo suddenly “injured” his ankle for his December 6th of last year fight with Joshua Clottey? Oscar pulled Canelo from Showtime, realigned Golden Boy with HBO, and started negotiating with Cotto in a feeble attempt to steal back Cinco De Mayo from Floyd Mayweather? There have been reports of that Tureano Johnson could draw the assignment to fight Trip.
For Ward, I think he and Roc Nation are going to go after Trip before he even has a chance to negotiate a fight with someone else. Ward’s last fight took place at light heavyweight (LHW) against Paul Smith and Ward hit the scales at 172 pounds. I believe that was done for two reasons.
One, he had been out the ring a while so getting to 168 was probably a bit of a task at that point. Now that the rust is off he can probably make 168 with no problem. Two, it was to do a test run for future showdown with light heavyweight champ Sergi Kovalev. Thomas Hearns did it against Murray Sutherland three bouts prior to his encounter Marvin Hagler. So the idea of Ward gagging what needs to be done at LHW is not farfetched.
Miguel Cotto/Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will battle for the WBC middleweight title on November 21 and will determine what Trip camp will does next. The WBC has mandated that winner fight Trip or be stripped. Trip will then be upgraded from WBC interim champ to the super WBC champ. I firmly believe that Ward’s “injury was calculated. Let’s see what happens next.
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