By Tim Fletcher: Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) will be making his second fight in the light heavyweight division on November 21st against Alexander Brand (24-1, 19 KOs) on HBO PPV, but Ward is already looking past the fight towards a bigger match-up against IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) next year in late 2016.
Before Ward can get to that fight, he needs to beat Brand and then one other still to be determined opponent in 2016. Ward says he’s got a lot of respect for the hard hitting Russian. He thinks he’s got a lot of skills, and he’s looking forward to facing him next year.
Ward was forced to move up in weight from the super middleweight division because he couldn’t get the top fighters in the 168lb division to fight him once he captured the Super Six tournament in 2011. Ward stuck it out for four years more years in the division before realizing that it was in his best interest to move up to the 175lb division for him to get the bigger fights against the likes of Kovalev, Jean Pascal, Adonis Stevenson and Juergen Braehmer.
“I’m not ducking nothing and never have. At the end of the day, there’s no way I’m coming to Kovalev’s neighborhood at 175 and at some point not knock on his door and want to play,” Ward said to Fighthype.com.
Ward might soon find out that he might have problems getting the better known light heavyweights to fight him if he beats Kovalev in 2016. Ward obviously would like to fight Pascal, Stevenson and Braehmer. But he might find out that those fighters are reluctant to fight him in the 175lb division just like the fighters were reluctant to fight him in the 168lb division.
“I respect Kovalev and at some point, we’re going to bump heads. I think he’s an all-around good fighter,” Ward said.
Ward won’t have to wait a long time before he meets up with Kovalev. Ward recently signed a 3-fight contract with HBO Boxing, and his third fight is expected to be against Kovalev. That’s only one year away. Ward needs to win that fight if he wants to take Kovalev’s place as the No.1 fighter in the light heavyweight division. There would still be Adonis Stevenson for Ward to fight, but that’s a fight that won’t happen unless the two fighters can fight on the same network. Ward fights on HBO, and Stevenson on Showtime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXKUKBMmHn4
A lot of boxing fans believe that Ward will lose to Kovalev. They see Ward’s lack of punching power, and feel that he won’t be able to match-up well with the Russian fighter. To be sure, it didn’t look good with the way that Ward was briefly shaken up in the 7th round by a big right hand from Paul Smith last June.
Smith put everything he had in that punch and had Ward hurt. Kovalev is capable of punching harder with every shot he throws, and he won’t have to load up on a single shot the way that Smith did. Ward won’t be able to smother Kovalev with his clinching style of fighting like he’s done against other opponents. Ward will need to stay on the outside because he won’t be able to overpower Kovalev in the clinches.
Ward’s opponent for November 21st, Alexander Brand, is untested for the most part. He was beaten by Badou Jack two years ago, but he’s recently beaten the following fighters to turn his career around: Bernard Donfack, Rey Recio, Wilmer Mejia, and Jorge Rodriguez Olivera.
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