By Allan Fox: Andre Ward (29-0, 15 KOs) will be making his tune-up fight against Alexander Brand (25-1, 19 KOs) next Saturday night on on August 6 HBO from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. This is a rust-ridding fight that Ward wanted to help sharpen him up for a title shot against unbeaten IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev for their November 19 fight.
Kovalev’s trainer John David Jackson says that Brand, 39, probably wasn’t paid very much money for the fight. For Ward to have gotten a good opponent, his promoters at Roc Nation Sports would have needed to come up with good money.
Brand isn’t supposed to give Ward any problems, and Jackson feels that he’ll end up taking away the Columbian fighter’s best weapons and wind up frustrating him.