Andre Ward wants Sergey Kovalev rematch

By Boxing News - 02/28/2017 - Comments

Image: Andre Ward wants Sergey Kovalev rematch

By Allan Fox: Andre Ward reportedly wants to face Sergey Kovalev in a rematch, according to his lawyer Josh Dubin. He says that the negotiations have begun between Kovalev’s promoters at Main Events and Ward’s promoters at Roc Nation Sports for a rematch on June 17. This would be another fight on HBO pay-per-view like the previous one on November 19 in 2016.

The Kovalev-Ward fight ended in controversy with Ward winning by a 12 round unanimous decision that easily could have gone the other way. One of the reasons why the decision could have gone to Kovalev is because he knocked Ward down in round 2.

Kovalev was pushing the fight for the entire 12 rounds, but he was having to deal with a lot of grappling tactics from Ward after he started to wrestle beginning in round 3.

Dubin is confident that they’ll be able to put a deal together to get the fight done. Dubin doesn’t say what will happen if the two sides fail to come to terms. Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Dubin said previously that the terms for the rematch were already in the original contract. If they have to put together a new contract, what does this mean?

“He sure is,” said Dubin to RingTV.com in saying that Ward wants the rematch with the 33-year-old Kovalev. “We’re optimistic that we’re going to be able to make a deal with Main Events, and we’re working toward that.”

The rematch makes sense for both fighters. The money is too good for either of them to walk away from the fight. Ward and Kovalev are not going to make similar money fighting anyone else in the light heavyweight division unless someone like Gennady Golovkin or Saul Canelo Alvarez decide to move up in weight two divisions to face them. That’s probably not going to happen anytime soon if ever.

Ward has said that in the rematch with Kovalev, he would treat it immediately like it’s 13th round, and he would continue fighting as he was. Some would interpret that to mean that Ward would use the same grappling game plan as he did the last time he fought Kovalev by turning the fight into an ugly inside wrestling match instead of throwing punches and making it exciting for the fans.

If Ward does plan on turning the Kovalev fight into a 12 round wrestling match, it’s up to the referee working the fight whether he’s going to allow that. The referee that worked the November 19 fight between Ward and Kovalev let the wrestling go on for 12 rounds without him being assertive and putting his foot down to start penalizing for the wrestling.

There are a lot of boxing fan who feel that Kovalev was given a loss that he didn’t deserve last November in the Ward fight. Many of the fans feel that Kovalev was treated like a visiting fighter despite him now living in the U.S in Florida. Ward seemed to have the boxing crowd on his side on the night of his fight against Kovalev on November 19. The pro-Ward cheering was loud throughout the contest. Kovalev was booed by some fans when he waked into the ring. He was also booed afterwards by a lot of fans when he was being interviewed.

The Ward-Kovalev rematch appears to be headed for the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. That venue has reportedly been reserved. We’ll see if the second fight does take place.

Kovalev needs to start working on his inside game right now if he wants to be prepared to beat Ward in the rematch on June 17. You can bet that Ward is going to take the fight to the inside and look to maul Kovalev for 12 rounds. I don’t think Ward can beat Kovalev if the two of them fight on the outside. Kovalev has a better jab, and a lot more punching power than Ward.

Surprisingly, Kovalev looked like the better fighter when he was on the outside against Ward. When Ward was younger, no one was better than him on the outside. He’s obviously slowed due to age and inactivity. Ward’s boxing career slowed to a crawl after he won the Super Six tournament in 2011. It’s possible that Ward would be the same fighter today even if he did stay active and fight 2-3 times per year. Ward’s slowing down might be just old age starting to rear it’s ugly head a little earlier with his career than with other fighters.

When your game is built around speed rather than power like with Ward, you lose a lot once you start slowing down. Ward isn’t like 34-year-old Gennady Golovkin, who has tons of punching power to fall back on as he slows down. If Ward was a big puncher, it wouldn’t matter that he’s slowing down. He would still have the power in his arsenal to win fights. Unfortunately, Ward doesn’t have power. The only thing Ward had in the cupboard for the Kovalev fight was his wrestling skills, which turned out to be his Plan-B after couldn’t compete on the outside.

There are a lot of boxing fans who want Ward to continue with his career win or lose in his rematch against Kovalev next June. But with the way that the 32-year-old Ward has been talking lately, it’s possible that he might not be sticking around the sport for much longer. If Ward only wants the big money fights, then he’s going to be limited to just fighting Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson.

Those are the big names at 175. The other top fighters like Joe Smith Jr., Artur Beterbiev, Eleider Alvarez and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, they’re not big names. They’re talented fighters, but they lack fan base at this time for them to be a pay-per-view option for Ward. As long as Ward is OK with taking on guys for less than huge money, then it would be a good idea for him to continue his boxing career. It’s unlikely that Ward is going to be able to attract many of the top super middleweights to move up to 175 to fight him. There aren’t any stars at super middleweight anyway.