Andre Ward says Sergey Kovalev is a ‘tougher challenge’ than GGG
LAS VEGAS – The debut of Andre Ward as a light heavyweight was supposed to take place on the undercard of the Nov. 21 showdown between Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez. However, a knee injury forced the 2004 Olympic gold medalist to push back his return.
That didn’t prevent Ward from attending the festivities and sitting down with a select group of media members to discuss his foray to a bigger weight class. More importantly, why Ward decided to give up on chasing boxing’s new star, Gennady Golovkin, in favor of current light heavyweight kingpin Sergey Kovalev.
No much more than a year ago, it appeared that Ward and GGG were heading for a clash. However, talks between the two camps have been less than amicable and fingers have been pointed regarding who is truly at fault for the bout stalling out.
“I was willing to fight him anywhere, anytime,” Ward said while pointing at his cell phone. “I can show you the texts between my people and his people. He just doesn’t want to fight me. Period. He can come up with any excuse he wants to, but the fact is that the fans will never get to see this fight and it would have been a great one.”
Although tempted, Ward decided against showing the emails and texts to the press. But Ward says that he’s done everything in his power to make the fight happen. With that fight apparently up in smoke for the time being, Ward turned his attention to Kovalev. It’s a deal that parties from both Roc Nation Sports (Ward’s promoter) and Main Events (Kovalev’s promoter) have agreed publicly is going to happen as long as both fighters get past their upcoming fights. Kovalev is currently scheduled for a rematch with Jean Pascal in January, while Ward is looking toward February or March to make his return.
When asked who he thought was the tougher challenge between GGG and Kovalev, Ward wasted no time responding.
“I think Kovalev is a tougher challenge,” Ward said about The Ring 2014 Fighter of the Year and current light heavyweight champion. “He’s bigger, stronger and, in my opinion, a better fighter. I think if you look at their résumés, there is no comparison between Kovalev’s résumé and Golovkin’s. There’s just not.”
