Two weeks ago, IBF, WBA, WBO light heavyweight champion Andre Ward (32-0, 16 KOs), 32 years old, caught everyone by surprise when he announced his retirement from the sport.
Ward, a unified champion at super middleweight, officially made his move to the light heavyweight division in early 2016. He only had four bouts at the weight, but in those four he dominated highly regarded contender Sullivan Barrera and picked up back to back wins over former division ruler Sergey Kovalev.
But there were still plenty of big fights on the table for Ward, including a full division unification with WBC champion Adonis Stevenson.
According to Ward's head trainer, Virgil Hunter, there was simply no money in a fight with Stevenson. Ward had made high seven figure paydays for both Kovalev bouts and wasn't willing to take a step back in the pay department when it came to Stevenson or anyone else.
"Well, Stevenson can only fight in Canada and there was really no money in that fight. Nobody put up the money for that fight, and once you make a certain amount of money, it’s only right that you continue to stay on that pay scale. Stevenson was not going to bring in that kind of money to the table because he only fights in Canada," Hunter told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
There was also the possibility of heading up to cruiserweight for a fight with Tony Bellew. Hunter says the contest with Bellew, and moving up to cruiserweight in general, brought more risk than it did reward.
"Moving up to cruiserweight and things, that was a negotiation situation that takes time and you don’t even know if it’s going to materialize. That’s what was open to us, either the move up in weight and fight somebody that could bring money to the table, or fight for less money. It was a good time to consider retirement since it was on the books anyways, so that’s what we did," Hunter said.