By Edward Chaykovsky
Former world champion Demetrius Andrade is siding with Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward (29-0, 15KOs) to unseat IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (30-0-1, 26KOs).
Ward returns to the ring in a stay busy fight on August 6th, and faces Alexander Brand in Oakland, California. If Ward wins, and almost everyone expects him to do so, he would move forward to a November fight with Kovalev at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Kovalev returned to the ring earlier this month in Russia and had some struggles in winning a twelve round decision over Isaac Chilemba.
Ward made the jump to light heavyweight earlier this year with a dominating victory over Sullivan Barrera. When the fight with Kovalev was first announced, a lot of experts were picking the champion to come out on top - mostly due to Ward's inactivity over the last few years.
But Kovalev's performance against Chilemba made a lot of critics, and fans, question whether the deadly puncher was capable of overcoming Ward's A-class boxing abilities.
Andrade is also on the Ward bandwagon. He believes the former super middleweight king will use his vast boxing experience to expose Kovalev's flaws.
"I believe that Kovalev when he fought Jean Pascal, Pascal was a short guy that throws a lot of arm punches. He caught Kovalev with some shots, so that kind of worries me when you’re putting up someone like Andre Ward that knows how to be a bully inside and be slick and also land shots," Andrade told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"Kovalev is a strong guy but his defense isn’t as good as Andre Ward’s. I think defense wins that fight and I think if Andre Ward is in great shape physically and mentally, he can definitely win that fight because Kovalev’s defense isn’t as great."
