By Edward Chaykovsky
John David Jackson, trainer of Sergey Kovalev (30-1, 26 KOs), says his boxer is ready to fight Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) in a rematch as soon as possible.
Last November at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Ward got off the floor in the second round to win a close twelve round unanimous decision over Kovalev to capture the WBA, WBO, IBF light heavyweight world titles. All three judges scored it 114-114.
There was an immediate rematch clause in place, with Kovalev exercising his right to a second fight. Kovalev's handlers would like the rematch to take place before the month of June.
There appear to be some financial beefs on the side of Ward, who appears to want more money for the second fight. He was guaranteed $5 million for the first contest and the pay-per-view was a bust with only 160,000 estimated buys - so it's going to be hard to secure more money or even the same guarantee as the first contest. That's a matter between Ward and his promoter, Roc Nation Sports.
The rematch clause precludes Ward from taking any other fighters.
"It’s up to Andre and what he wants to do. For the sake of boxing it would be great if the rematch happened immediately like it should. Will it happen? The ball is in Andre’s court, so it’s up to him at this point," Jackson told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
Jackson is still confident that his boxer was robbed of a dominant decision win, but he doesn't blame Ward for the outcome.
"Boxing is boxing, it happens and you have to move on. I thought he won the fight 9-3 or 8-4 at the worst, for us. I thought Sergey won at least eight rounds, if not nine. It’s boxing. I can’t blame Ward, he’s a good fighter, all he did was fight, it was the judges that made the decision. It was a bad decision and hopefully the rematch will be honored and they will fight between April and no later than June," Jackson said.
