By Keith Idec
Floyd Mayweather Jr. considers Andre Ward the best boxer, pound-for-pound, in the world now that he has retired.
Mayweather doesn’t think it’s a good idea, however, for Ward to move up to 175 pounds for a showdown with IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. The undefeated five-division champion told FightHype.com’s Ben Thompson in an interview posted Wednesday that Ward should instead pursue a 168-pound fight against middleweight knockout artist Gennady Golovkin in 2016.
“You gotta really look at things like this: when Bernard Hopkins was a middleweight trying to fight Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, and Felix Trinidad, they [the media] said he was calling out smaller guys,” Mayweather told FightHype.com. “When the guy Triple-G does it, they don’t say sh*t. Once again, I’m not racist; I’m just saying racism still exists. Do I think that they’re trying to get Andre Ward beat? Absolutely! Andre Ward, if you’re reading this article, if I was you, I wouldn’t move up to 175 pounds to fight the guy, Kovalo [Sergey Kovalev], if that’s his name, because I really don’t know his name. I know he’s a light heavyweight.
“Andre Ward is a 68-pounder and I think he should continue to dominate at 168. This is what I think should happen. You know, everybody keeps talking Triple-G, so I just started taking notice probably last year. If this guy Triple-G is so tough and so bad, you know, from what they say, then let him go up and fight Andre Ward. Once again, these guys in boxing [media], not me, are rating this guy, Triple-G, super high. He’s good with a stationary target in front of him. When he’s fighting a guy that’s straight up and down with no special effects, is he good? Absolutely! But do I think that Triple-G can beat Andre Ward? Absolutely not! Easy pickings! It’s going to be very, very, very easy for Andre Ward.”
As part of his new deal with HBO, the 31-year-old Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) eventually is supposed to face Kovalev. If Ward-Kovalev were to occur in the fall of 2016, Ward would likely need to win one interim match, while Kovalev (28-0-1, 25 KOs) probably would need to win twice before fighting Ward.
Ward, who gave up his WBA super middleweight title November 12, is tentatively scheduled to return to the ring March 26 at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. Cuban contender Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) is the front-runner to land that assignment, though the their promoters, Roc Nation Sports (Ward) and Main Events (Barrera), remain far apart on money.
Kovalev, meanwhile, is expected to fight sometime in the summer against an undetermined foe if he beats Quebec’s Jean Pascal (30-3-1, 17 KOs, 1 NC) in their rematch January 30 at Bell Centre in Montreal.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.