By Allan Fox: Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) says he wants the best deal before he agrees to a rematch between him and former champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) for 2017. If Ward doesn’t get the deal he’s looking for, he mind wind up retiring from boxing. Ward is talking retirement.
Would he actually step away from the sport if he doesn’t get the right financial package for the Kovalev rematch, only he knows for sure? Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva doesn’t have clue where Ward is coming from with all his talk about the rematch needing to make business sense.
Duva says the terms for the rematch are already in the contract for their previous fight. The rematch clause and the terms for the rematch were set in that contract. Duva says that she thinks Ward is talking about his own promoters at Roc Nation when he says the rematch has to make business sense, because the terms are already set. The question is does Ward want Duva and Main Events to change the terms for the rematch against Kovalev otherwise he’ll retire? That would be disappointing if that’s the case.
Ward said this to TMZ.com about his thoughts on the Kovalev rematch:
“I think I said it all in that comment I made,” said Ward about his rematch with Kovalev. “It’s simple, I’ve been doing this for a long time, and we just got to see. The rematch is obviously something we’re entertaining. If it’s right, let’s do it. If not, it’s about getting the right deal. It’s about putting myself in the right situation. We earned it. You guys saw my last fight. I beat the guys that nobody said I could beat..So moving forward, I want to act like we beat the guy that nobody thought I could beat. As long as everybody acts like that, I think that we would be fine,” said Ward.
I don’t know if Duva is going to be willing to change the contract for Ward to get a bigger slice of the revenue. If the contract terms for the rematch are already set from the previous fight, why would Duva look change them? It wouldn’t make much sense, because Kovalev would lose money. Of course, Kovalev will make more money fighting Ward a second time than if he were to have to fight for one of the vacated titles.
Kovalev wouldn’t be able to fight for all three of the titles at once if Ward vacates them and retires. The money that Kovalev gets for fighting a top contender like Artur Beterbiev for one of the titles would pale in comparison to what he’d get in a rematch against Ward. There’s a lot more money for Ward and Kovalev to make by fighting each other a second and even a third time. These are two of the most popular fighters in the light heavyweight division by far right now.
The money is too good for them not to fight each other again and again. Kovalev and Duva can call Ward’s bluff and see if he actually does retire rather than accept the original terms for the rematch that are in the contract. If Ward retires, then they all lose. If Ward is just bluffing, then he could still take the rematch under the original terms. Duva and Kovalev would need to be willing to test how serious Ward is about retiring by not choosing to negotiate the terms for the rematch.
Duva said this to Fighthub.com about Ward’s talk of retirement if the rematch with Kovalev doesn’t make sense to her:
“Anybody can retire if they want. That’s his choice. But if he wants to fight, he’ll fight Sergey Kovalev next. The terms for the rematch was negotiated when Ward was given the opportunity to fight for three titles. You make concessions when you get the opportunity, so all the terms for the rematch between Main Events and Roc Nation were negotiated at that time.”
Duva has already picked up the options for the rematch with Ward by letting Roc Nation know that Kovalev will be fighting Ward again as part of the rematch clause. If Ward is going to fight again, he’ll need that to be against Kovalev. If he wants to retire from boxing and walk away from a big payday, then that’s something he can certainly do.
Duva can’t force Ward to take the rematch with Kovalev. Duva isn’t saying what the percentage split of the revenue is for the 32-year-old Ward for the rematch against Kovalev. It stands to reason that it’s not to Ward’s liking for him to be talking about retirement unless the money for the rematch is to his liking. Ward didn’t say how much money he wants for the rematch. He says he’s leaving that up to his management.
If Ward does take the nuclear option by retiring from the sport rather than fighting Kovalev in a rematch, then it will leave Kovalev having to fight for one of the belts against whoever the sanctioning bodies decide for him to fight. Kovalev can pick out one of the belts and fight for it. The No.1 contender for the WBA title is Dmitry Bivol, and the top contenders for the IBF is Artur Beterbiev, and WBO is Dominic Boesel. Bivol and Boesel would be the more beatable options for Kovalev. Beterbiev would be a really tough opponent, as he’s beaten Kovalev in the past when the two of them were in the amateur ranks.