by Radio Rahim
During a recent interview with TMZ - IBF, WBA, WBO light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (31-0, 15KOs) stayed firm with his position of potentially retiring from the sport - unless he received the "right deal" to move forward with a contracted rematch against Sergey Kovalev (30-1-1, 26KOs).
Last month at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Ward got off the floor in the second round to win a razor-thin twelve round unanimous decision over Kovalev to capture the unified crown at 175-pounds.
All three of the official judges scored it for Ward by a single point, 114-113. There was an immediate rematch clause in the contract, and Kovalev has exercised that stipulation.
In the first fight, Ward had a guarantee of $5 million, while Kovalev was set to receive $2 million. The pay-per-view did not perform as expected, with HBO sources confirming that it barely cracked 160,000 buys. Whether or not the rematch does better is up for debate.
Based on Ward's statements, he wants more money for a second fight.
"It's about getting the right deal. It's about putting myself in the right situation. I've earned it," Ward told TMZ.
Main Events CEO Kathy Duva, who promotes Kovalev, believes Ward was significantly overpaid for the first fight - based on the economics of their promotion - but Ward's guarantee has nothing to do with her company. Ward's money is handled by his promoter, Roc Nation Sports.
As far as the monetary split for the rematch - Duva indicates that all of those figures were already worked out and agreed upon when they finalized the deal for the initial meeting.
"Here is the thing, the purse disparity existed because Ward has a promoter who made a decision, for whatever reason, to take money out of his own pocket and give it to his fighter. If I was as rich as Jay-Z - maybe I would do that, but I'm not. I'm not guy who came along and discovered Sergey Kovalev when he was nothing and now he's something. And we worked together to make all that happen and we have a great relationship," Duva explained to BoxingScene.com.
"Sergey understands and we spoke to Sergey after we found out what the Roc Nation people had guaranteed to Ward. This promotion did not earn the kind of money that it would have taken to pay purses at that level. I don't know if the next one will."
"But Jay-Z has a deal with Ward, that's their business. Sergey's purse is based on reality and it will be based on reality again. As far as splits are concerned, those were already negotiated. They were negotiated when we made the original deal. Splits were negotiated if you win, if you lose... so that's all done. [Ward demanding more money] - that's between him and his promoter. If he wants more money from his promoter, it's up to his promoter to decide if he wants to double-down on that."
