The Rise and Fall of Andre Ward

[KillaMane26]

......What fall?

[Scipio2009]

lol, the guy tried to plug his own fanpost, as if it was some actual reporting. smh

Interesting article discussing how Andre Ward has somewhat fallen off since beating Froch and raises some good points of where should he go next.

1) Can he still be considered the A side in negotiations?
2) Will he travel?
3) We need a big fight now! No more mismatches

-Andre Ward, even after the super-extended layoff, was still able to go home, put 10,000 people into his home venue, and likely end up selling over $700k at his gate (can't confirm the number, as I haven't been able to find much information about it, but the attendance/gate for Ward-Smith patterned along rather well with the business that Ward-Dawson, at a higher price point).

-Ward has Oracle Arena (18k+ seats) as his home venue in Oakland, RocNation has a standing relationship with Barclays Center (18k+ seats) in New York, and MGM Resorts is looking for new stars/big fights to bring to their Las Vegas venue; Mandalay Bay (12k+ seats), MGM Grand (16k+ seats), and AEG Arena (20k+seats). Yes, Ward is going to travel, just only to the markets/venues that make sense; no trips to Texas, and only a trip back into Southern California for a fight against a major Hispanic fighter (Chavez Jr).

-Ward and his camp, if they had their druthers, would've fought their stay-busy fight on the Cotto-Alvarez PPV, fought Golovkin in February on PPV, had a 175 fight in the early summer, before moving into the Kovalev PPV come the fall (likely having no qualms, on their end, with negotiating the massive unification fight with Adonis Stevenson, made much easier by the fact that neither fighter would owe any fights to any broadcaster).

[Scipio2009]

What I find strange is how Andre Ward is one of the top American fighters and has been a pro since 2004 yet has never once fought in Las Vegas.

His next fight on the Cotto/Canelo undercard is scheduled for Vegas.

GoosenTutor was a California-based promotional company, and Andre Ward was a Bay Area kid who won the gold medal, came back home, and built his pro camp out of his home gym in the Bay Area.

You add that Goosen brought Ward along relatively slowly, and where would he have the opportunity to fight on a Vegas show? Ward-Pavlik may have ended up being out of Vegas, but the move wouldn't have made sense for any Ward fight, tbh.

He's now 31, his resume has been layed solid, the sportsbook/whales seem to know who he is, and now fights in Vegas make far more sense, assuming he keeps active and keeps impressing.

[Scipio2009]

Probably because Mayweather-Berto was a considerably worse mismatch.

based on what exactly?

Prior to the Pacquiao fight, the only solid fight that Algieri even had on his resume was against Ruslan Provodnikov (some folks may also count Emmanuel Taylor, but I'll leave that on the fence).

Say what you want about Andre Berto, everyone knew and understood that he could fight before he stepped into the ring with Mayweather, longshot odds or not.

The same could not be said of Chris Algieri, a point made even clearer in his wipeout loss.

try again

[NEETzsche]

-Ward and his camp, if they had their druthers, would've fought their stay-busy fight on the Cotto-Alvarez PPV, fought Golovkin in February on PPV

the golovkin deal they offered was the same as the kovalev deal: two tune-ups and meet at the end of 2016. the kovalev fight should be happening in february, but ward is dragging his heels for some reason...

[soul_survivor]

I wouldn't quite call it a fall but the article makes some good points and in all honesty, it is largely accurate and honest. Leading into the Froch fight, I wasn't a Ward fan but I always respected his skills and predicted him to beat Froch in a close fight but by the last 2 rounds, it was obvious Ward won every moment in the bout. Froch ended strongly and a case could be made for a rematch but Ward proved he was the man.

What a start to the new decade for him, he should have gone on to fight at the very least 3 of the following few names: Bute, Pascal, Kovalev, Froch II and a handful of others. The fact that none of those fights came to fruition is to Ward's detriment. You can say Froch didn't deserve a rematch, you can discuss the financial or geographical issues with Bute or Kovalev but when a guy has more names missing form his resume than he should, that should ring some alarm bells.

3 fights, 4 years, no legitimacy. That's Ward's legacy as it stands.

[Scipio2009]

the golovkin deal they offered was the same as the kovalev deal: two tune-ups and meet at the end of 2016. the kovalev fight should be happening in february, but ward is dragging his heels for some reason...

Unless I've read it wrong, what you're saying is inaccurate