By Allan Fox: IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) says the only name that he’s interested in fighting right now is Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs), but the fight needs to make sense for him. This is the same thing that Ward has been saying since he beat Kovalev by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision in their fight on November 19 last year on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
By Allan Fox: Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) will not be missed by the sport of boxing after he retires, according to former 168lb champion Carl Froch. He saw Ward’s recent victory over Sergey Kovalev, and he feels that the fight should have been scored a draw. Ward won by a 12 round unanimous decision by the identical scores of 114-113 x 3. Kovalev fought well enough to deserve the win in the eyes of a lot of the fans and the media, but Ward was the one that had his hand raised after the fight.
It’s now unclear whether Ward will fight Kovalev in a rematch. With the money on the line for the rematch, it’s difficult to imagine Ward retiring without fighting Kovalev at least once more.
By Brendan Earley: Andre Ward’s career has been constructed on taking on and fighting the best. One glance at his resume will support this statement, as over the years he has claimed victories against top competitors such as Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Arthur Abraham and Chad Dawson. Such victories resulted in him being crowned the top fighter at 168 pounds, and helped him forge a reputation as one of the best fighters in the world.
After conquering the Super Middleweight division Ward set his sights on replicating the dominance he enjoyed at 168 in the Light Heavyweight Division of 175 pounds. After a period of inactivity caused by injuries and legal issues, Andre took the plunge to Light Heavyweight in 2015, defeating Paul Smith via TKO. After this Ward continued his conquest on the 175 pound weight class, stringing together wins over Sullivan Barrera and Alexander Brand, and in late last year S.O.G took on the biggest challenge of his career so far; A fight with Sergey Kovalev.
By Gav Duthie: Its only January but 2017 is shaping up to be a fantastic year already. We have already seen a cracking unification bout between Badou Jack and James Degale, Joshua v Klitschko has sold over 80,000 tickets, Canelo v Chavez Jnr will likely do the same. The #1 and #2 middleweights Gennady Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs are signed to fight but one of the fights I’m looking forward to most is the rematch between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz. To make 2017 a top year here are 5 other rematches I would like to see happen.
Vasyl Lomachenko 7-1 (5) v Orlando Salido 43-13-4 (30)
By Allan Fox: In response to Floyd Mayweather Jr. saying this week that he didn’t see Andre Ward as the winner of his fight against former IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in their fight on November 19, Ward took to social media to fire back at Mayweather. Ward told Mayweather that he shouldn’t be a critic, and he doesn’t see it as a good look for him to be doing that.
Mayweather seems to pride himself in giving his unvarnished opinion about fighters. If he believes that they’re lacking in some area of their game or in their career development, he tells it like it is by giving his opinion.
By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. apparently saw the fight between Andre “SOG” Ward (31-0, 19 KOs) and former IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) last year on November 19th, because he says that Ward DID NOT win that fight.
The three judges that were appointed to work the fight by the Nevada State Athletic Commission all scored the fight identically in giving War the win by the scores of 114-113, 114-113 and 114-113. This writer saw the Kovalev-Ward fight and he gave it to Kovalev by a 9 rounds to 3 score.
By Allan Fox: In what has to be seen as a bad sign for the March 18 fight between IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) and Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) if you were hoping for an exciting crowd-pleasing fight, Jacobs has added trainer Virgil Hunter to his training team, and he’s saying that his fighter Andre Ward’s performance against Sergey Kovalev has “inspired” him.
The reason why it’s not good news for boxing fans is the fact that Ward smothered Kovalev’s offense all night long by wrestling with him to keep him from getting his shots off. Ward briefly tried to fight Kovalev like he’d done with his three previous opponents, but after getting dropped in the 2nd round, Ward went into the wrestling mode and stayed there for the remainder of the night.
By Yannis Mihanos: Before going up at the light Heavyweight division, Andre “SOG” Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) had to stay on the sidelines for a considerable period of time.
This was a difficult time but also the only way to get out of a nasty contract agreement. Contracts often tie fighters to do things they don’t want to do, to get fights not so appealing to them.
By Allan Fox: Andre Ward’s promoter Michael Yormark of Roc Nation Sports isn’t sure whether Ward will choose to continue his boxing career and face Sergey Kovalev in a rematch. Yormark says it’s up to Ward whether he wants to continue his career. Ward is sounding like he’s not sure if he wants to continue fighting and face Kovalev a second time.
This of course could be Ward hoping to get a better deal for the rematch with Kovalev, as there would be negotiations that would need to take place before a second fight could be scheduled.
By Allan Fox: With Andre Ward now holding the IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight titles, he now has leverage in the negotiations with Sergey Kovalev for a rematch between them in 2017, according to Ward’s promoter Michael Yormark of Roc Nation Sports. Just how much of the fight needs to be negotiated is the big question. Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva said previously that the figures for the rematch were already in the original contract.
However, it doesn’t seem like that’s the reality, according to Yormark. That’s not good news for Kovalev and Duva. If Ward’s promoters are going to push to get a big slice of the revenue in their favor, it’s going to make it difficult to get the rematch made.