By Edward Chaykovsky
Virgil Hunter, trainer of Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward (28-0, 15KOs), looks forward to next year's battle with WBO/IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (28-0-1, 25KOs).
Ward has a highly successful run in the super middleweight division with wins over Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler, Chad Dawson, Sakio Bika, Edwin Rodriguez, Carl Froch, Edison Miranda, Allan Green, and several others.
As part of a recently signed multi-fight agreement with HBO, the fighter is moving up in weight to the light heavyweight division.
Ward was set to returned on Saturday night as part of the Miguel Cotto-Saul Alvarez PPV undercard, but was forced to withdraw with injury. He will return at some point in early 2016 and then collide with Kovalev by the end of the year.
"If he’s gonna move up into the division, you want to fight the best and Kovalev’s the top dog in that division. He’s the best, he has a fearsome reputation, and he’s an excellent fighter with great punching power, great pedigree. That’s always been what we’ve done, we fight the best, so it’s a no brainer," Hunter told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"If you move into a division, you should want to fight the best and Sergey Kovalev is certainly the best. We feel good about the fight and when the fight comes, we look forward to it."
