By Allan Fox: Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) is saying that for him to fight former IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) again, it’s got to make sense. Ward says that Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva is not the A-side now after Kovalev’s controversial 12 round unanimous decision loss to Ward last month on November 19 on HBO PPV.
Duva reportedly has a rematch clause in the contract with Ward. So for Ward to say it’s got to make sense for him to fight Kovalev or anyone for that matter; it makes it unclear whether Ward would vacate his titles or simply dig in his heels and not fight Kovalev? For Ward to keep the titles he won, you would think that he would need to fight Kovalev again unless there’s a way of getting around the contract.
I don’t know why Ward wouldn’t want to fight Kovalev a second time, because there’s a lot of boxing fans who think that Ward didn’t deserve the win last November. At least if Ward fought Kovalev a second time, he would have a chance of proving to the many doubters that saw Kovalev winning.
The problem is that many fans are invalidating the decision by the three judges, who scored it 114-113, 114-113 and 114-113 for Ward. You can argue that a decision win is only as good as the perceived quality of the judging. If the boxing public disagrees with the judges’ decision, as many have done in the Kovalev-Ward fight, then that leaves Ward as an undeserving champion in the eyes of a lot of fans.
Ward said this to Fighthype.com about his thoughts on his rematch with Kovalev:
“I think Kathy has to realize she’s not on the A-side now,” said Ward. “Her fighter is not the champion. Things are different. She can say she’s exercising our rematch clause and that’s fine. But when we decide to come to the table, we’ll see if it’s right. But in order for me to get back into the ring period, it has to make sense. The situation has to be right. It’s unfortunate that Kovalev is resorting to what he’s resorting to and saying what he said. I expected more from him. I think people have got to realize that it’s a unanimous decision, whether it’s one point or five points. And to say that all three judges got it wrong, I don’t know. I can’t tell you the amount of fans that said, ‘Bro, I had you up by two. I had you put up a point.’ I’m not going to let the boxing media try and twist it. It was a tremendous victory, man. They can write and say what they want. It doesn’t change the course of history. It doesn’t change my legacy. I’m not bothered. I’m not angry.”
Not fighting Kovalev again will put Ward right back into the same situation he was in when he fought at 168. In other words, he’ll be a champion, but he’ll have a bunch of little known fighters as his only options to fight. The 175lb division only has a small handful of well-known fighters to the hardcore boxing fans. As far as the casual fans go, there’s maybe three fighters that are somewhat known to them. One of those fighters is Kovalev. If Ward chooses not to fight Kovalev, for whatever reason, then he’d be limiting his chances and putting himself back in the same place he was at when he was fighting at 168 after the Super Six tournament.
Ward never fully took advantage of his popularity after winning the tournament. Instead of fighting rematches with Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler, which would have been the biggest fights for Ward, he was stuck fighting Edwin Rodriguez and Chad Dawson. Talk about a letdown. If Ward doesn’t take the Kovalev fight, then what are his options? I’d say they’re not too good.
If Ward is only going to take the rematch with Kovalev if it makes sense, then what happens if it doesn’t make sense? Does Ward vacate his three titles or does just choose not to bother fighting Kovalev and see what happens? It’ll be interesting to see what takes place at that point.
If Ward just moves on without fighting Kovalev a second time, then where does he go? Adonis Stevenson is with Premier Boxing Champions and fights on Showtime, so he’s not an option. How much interest would there be for a fight between Ward and guys like Artur Beterbiev and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, and Nathan Cleverly? I don’t think those fights would play out well in the U.S boxing public. Beterbiev is a great talent, but he’s still an unknown with casual boxing fans, and Ward might lose to him.
Gvozdyk would be a difficult fight for Ward, because Ukrainian fighter has a lot of punching power, and he’s younger than him at 29. Maybe Ward wins that fight, but it wouldn’t be easy and there wouldn’t likely be much interest from the casual fans. Let’s face it; Kovalev is the best option for Ward in the 175lb division in terms of a payday. Even with Kovalev, there was limited interest. The fight reportedly brought in just 160,000 PPV buys on HBO. That’s a far cry from the 1 million+ buys that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao frequently brought in during their pro careers.
What Ward’s fight against Kovalev showed is that Ward is not the fighter he once was in my view, and he’s not likely going to find his way back to the youthful fighter that won the Super Six tourney in 2011. Even if Ward does choose to stay the IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion, how much more time does he really have? Unless his promoters at Rock Nation match him against beatable guys, I think there’s the possibility that Ward could lose his titles within one to two years due to aging and running into a fighter with better offensive skills than him. Ward doesn’t have the offensive skills to last long as a champion in the 175lb division I my view.
If all Ward can do now is wrestle and jab his opponents, then I don’t think that’s going to go too far in the division. Ward might have tired Kovalev out with his wrestling, but will that work with Artur Beterbiev, who is top notch at fighting on the inside and someone that might be an even better inside fighter than Ward? With Ward’s hand speed slowing down and him not having the power to compete with the top 175lb fighters on even terms, how far can he go if his Plan-A is going to be to wrestle them, and his Plan-B is to jab them? How long can Ward win by wrestling and jabbing against bigger, stronger and younger fighters with better offensive skills?
If anything, the Kovalev vs. Ward fight showed me that both of those fighters are going downhill, and have very little time left as championship level fighters. Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports might be able to keep him as unified champion for two years at best with the right kind of match-making, but I don’t see Ward staying a champion for even one fight if he’s matched tough by fighting Kovalev with a different set of judges, who might score the fight entirely different than the three previous judges that worked the November 19 fight.
If Ward fights Beterbiev or Gvozdyk right now, I think loses to both of them. I don’t know how long Ward can go before he has to fight them, but I think he might be able to remain champion up until then if he doesn’t fight Kovalev again. if he fights him again, I see Ward losing, because we saw the best Ward last time. All he can do in the rematch is go back to wrestling and hoping that Kovalev didn’t improve with his inside fighting.
