By Ryan Burton
WBA/WBO/IBF light heavyweight champion Andre "SOG" Ward was part of the August 19th ESPN broadcast team for Terence Crawford's third round TKO of Julius Indongo to unify all four major belts. Crawford is the first fighter to accomplish the feat in the super lightweight division.
BoxingScene.com caught up with the two-division champion shortly after the fight to get an update on his future plans. Ward last fought in June when he stopped Sergey Kovalev in 8 rounds in a rematch of their November, 2016 bout that Ward won by a thin 115-113 margin on all cards.
After the second victory over Kovalev, WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson called out Ward on social media. The fight would unify all four belts in the light heavyweight division.
Stevenson had previously been linked to Kovalev but after leaving HBO in late 2013 and a purse bid ordered by the WBC, the fight has never came close to fruition.
Ward found it very interesting that he was able to fight Kovalev twice in just over a year's time of moving up to the light heavyweight division while Stevenson has yet to face the Russian.
"You know what is strange to me? I just came up in weight not too long ago. About a year or something like that. He has been at 75' for a long time and Kovalev has been at 75' for a long time. How did I fight Kovalev twice before he fought Kovalev once? I mean I think that is a legitimate question that I ask and the fans are asking. He allowed us to do the heavy lifting and then he wants to come in and post Instagrams saying the champ is ready to unify. My question is why weren't you ready to unify back then?" Ward told BoxingScene.com.
The 33-year-old Ward isn't just fighting these days as he also co-manages 2016 U.S. Olympian silver medalist Shakur Stevenson who is 3-0 so far in his young career.
Ward agreed with my assessment that if a championship level fighter wants a certain fight, he can tell his team to try to make the deal
"A certain point you let the team do their job but the fighter can always have the last say. It is one thing when you are on your way up like Shakur - 'you are not going to fight that guy you are going to fight this guy' - but in his case you tell your team, 'hold on a second, I appreciate that advice but I want that guy. I want all his belts,' but he didn't do it because he saw something in Kovalev that he was concerned about and for whatever reason he must think he sees something in me where he feels like he can capitalize or whatever the case may be. We'll see," said Ward.
2023-10-19 10:05:31
2023-10-19 10:05:39
