Andre Ward Talks Fighting on BET, Discusses PBC Impact

by David P. Greisman

Andre Ward first made his name as a pro on Showtime, where he won the “Super Six” tournament. Then he moved over to HBO, taking out Chad Dawson and Edwin Rodriguez.

But now, for his first fight with new promoter Roc Nation Sports and in his first appearance since November 2013, Ward will face Paul Smith in a June 20 broadcast on BET, a prominent and far-reaching network whose target audience is African-American viewers and which reaches a broad swath of homes in the United States.

“Obviously my relationship with Roc Nation Sports is extremely important to me. I had a rough last two years with lawsuits and different things. That stuff’s behind me. I’m glad it’s over with. Big things are up ahead,” Ward told BoxingScene.com on April 24.

Being on BET opens up “different doors” for him, he said.

“I love the boxing media, but this allows me to get outside of that a little bit. This extends our reach a little bit further,” Ward said. “Everyone I talked to last night [at an April 23 BET event], some of them were fans of mine, some of them didn’t care about boxing, but they became interested last night. BET is in over 90 million homes, and those are probably 90 million people who typically wouldn’t be watching a boxing match. They get it right there in their living room, and I’m excited about that.”

He’s not certain whether this is a one-time thing on BET or if all of his bouts would be there from here on out.

“ I got to take it one fight at a time,” Ward said. “We gotta get through this one and then we’ll sit down and figure it out from there.”

Ward’s not the only fighter appearing away from the premium cable channels — on standard cable and on the free broadcast networks. There’s also the big entry of Premier Boxing Champions, which is on ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Bounce, Spike and others. It’s an entity created by longtime powerful boxing adviser Al Haymon.

“I don’t look at it like it’s a competition, us versus them so to speak. It benefits the sport,” Ward said. “At the end of the day, I may not be on that team or that team, but I’m in the fraternity and it benefits everybody. People who are not hardcore fans are tuning in and getting this action for free. I think that’s what it’s all about. It benefits all of us.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com