by David P. Greisman

The last top light heavyweight to challenge Andre Ward was Chad Dawson, who was the lineal champion at 175 when he boiled down to 168 for a Ward bout. Dawson’s team afterward said that making weight had hurt him; Ward dominated Dawson and scored a 10th-round technical knockout.

Sergey Kovalev’s team was asked about possibly facing Ward shortly after shut out Bernard Hopkins. Kovalev makes 175 fairly easily — trainer John David Jackson said his fighter comes into camp in the mid 180s and was at about 179 pounds with four weeks to go. HBO’s unofficial scales had Kovalev rehydrating from about 174 to 188 pounds on fight night.

“He makes it fairly easily,” Jackson said. “He doesn’t get big.”

But everyone from Kovalev, his promoter, his trainer and his conditioning team shot down a drop down to 168. If Ward is going to fight Kovalev, Jackson said, it needs to be at light heavyweight.

“I want Ward, because he’s the most valuable name out there. He deserves it at 168. I think he needs to move ‘75. He started out in amateurs as a light heavyweight and won the gold medal there. He went down to fight smaller men. Come on back up and fight at your natural weight,” Jackson said.

He wouldn’t entertain the idea of a catch-weight either.

“Ward need to come to 175. There is no catch-weight,” Jackson said. “Fight him at 175 or there’s no fight. There’s no catch-weight for this guy.”

Jackson said he believes Ward would be the B-side in a Kovalev bout and would not have the leverage in negotiations to demand a lighter weight.

“He is now due to his inactivity. He is the B-side fighter,” Jackson said. “Sergey has three belts now and he’s cleaned the division out. He’s willing to fight anybody. He is the A-side fighter. There was a time when Ward could’ve negotiated and asked for things. Now he’s not in that position. He’s the B-side. Will he fight Sergey? Maybe one day he might, but right now I don’t see that happening, because he’s calling out [Gennady] Golovkin, [Julio Cesar] Chavez. Those guys are small guys. Fight somebody bigger. Fight somebody more your weight.

“They put you as No. 2 pound-for-pound, No. 3. Prove that position. You’re going to make money with Sergey. That’s what the game all about: beating the best and making money at it. If he can’t fight a guy like Sergey, then he’s not proving himself worthy to the fans of the position that he has. He’s earned it, don’t get me wrong. But now he needs to retain that and fight somebody who there’s a risk of him losing to. Not GGG. He’s too big for GGG. He probably would outmuscle GGG.”

And it’s not just about Ward. Jackson’s not a fan of catch-weights as a whole.

“Why need a catchweight? If I’m the best at my weight and you want to fight me, come up and fight me,” he said. “That catch-weight, that’s crap. When I went from junior middleweight to middleweight, I didn’t ask Reggie Johnson to meet me at 157. I gave up my belt, I fought at 160 and I beat him.”

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