By Cliff Rold
Before a largely self-imposed hiatus of close to two years, lineal Super Middleweight champion Andre Ward was regarded as no worse than the second best prizefighter in boxing. He’s probably still as good as he ever was. He’s only 31 years old, fights in a relatively safe style, and has one of the highest boxing IQ’s in the game. A protracted contractual battle between Ward and the late Dan Goosen kept Ward out of the ring since November 2013.
The layoff is over and its ending is overdue. After establishing himself in Showtime’s Super Six tournament with successive victories over Mikkel Kessler, Alan Green, Sakio Bika, Arthur Abraham, and Carl Froch from 2009-11, Ward made the move to HBO for a Super Middleweight title defense against then-reigning Light Heavyweight champion Chad Dawson in September 2012.
His television number indicated a growing television audience. His fight with Dawson drew approximately 1.3 million viewers, with his next fight against Rodriguez ticking in just a tad lower at 1.2. While often treated as just okay, they are numbers on par with the best of Middleweight Gennady Golovkin and Light Heavyweight Sergey Kovalev.
Some reports in media would have one thinking otherwise. It’s not true. Golovkin might sell more tickets, but his television ratings haven’t dwarfed Ward. Kovalev hasn’t sold tickets the way Ward did in Oakland for Kessler or Dawson and his ratings aren’t more impressive. Whether Ward’s layoff squandered his momentum won’t be known until he returns to a platform like HBO again.
Kovalev and Golovkin are used with intent. As Ward embarks on a safe landing return on BET this Saturday (10 PM EST) against former Super Middleweight title challenger Paul Smith (35-5, 20 KO) at a catchweight of 172 lbs., all eyes will be on the future.
The division he elects to compete in going forward will determine whose name dominates that future.
In the last week, trash talk between the camps of Golovkin and Ward had renewed speculation about what would be the most interesting clash between reigning Middle and Super Middleweight titlists since Roy Jones-James Toney. Throughout the Ward absence, there have been Ward fans claiming Golovkin wouldn’t move up to try their man.
These fans, willfully ignorant, enjoyed looking past that Ward couldn’t fight Golovkin or anyone else while his contract dispute remained unsettled. Ward smartly skipped that important point in public statements meant to keep his name in the news.
Should Ward opt to return to 168 after his fight with Smith, there will finally be a real possibility to consider. With Golovkin stuck in a shallow division waiting for unification, Ward would be a serious threat only one class up. There’s nothing wrong with being a one-division titan. Carlos Monzon, Marvin Hagler, and Bernard Hopkins did it (until he was 40 and then spent another decade at Light Heavyweight).
Monzon found rivals in Bennie Briscoe, Emile Griffith, and Rodrigo Valdes. Hagler got Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard. Hopkins got Felix Trinidad.
Nothing waiting in the wings for Golovkin at Middleweight is that good. If Golovkin truly wants to prove how good he is, it’s not going to come at 160 lbs. in the foreseeable future. IBF titlist Andy Lee wouldn’t do it. Neither would the winner of Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam-David Lemieux. The likely Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez superfight would give him the sort of name brand Hopkins found with Trinidad but probably present a challenge more akin to Hopkins-Oscar De La Hoya. Floyd Mayweather isn’t going to come to 160 to fight Golovkin unless there is some ridiculous catchweight.
This is as wanting a Middleweight class as there has ever been. A division that was consistently strong from the 1920s to the 1970s has been spotty since. Outside of a remarkably talented and deep pool of natural Middleweights from the late 1980s to mid-1990s, it’s been this way more often than not for going on two generations. Hagler had to wait for smaller men to challenge him and got some dandies. Today is on par with the shallow division Hopkins was stuck with for years.
Ward is the one opponent potentially within a division of Golovkin that would give him a chance to answer lingering questions about his real quality and lacking quality of opposition. Golovkin won a Silver Medal at the Olympic Middleweight limit of 165 lbs. in 2004, has never weighed below 158 as a pro, and regularly rehydrates into the 170s. Size isn’t really an issue.
If Ward is back, regularly active, returns to Super Middleweight, and reasonable numbers can be reached on both sides, Ward-Golovkin is the fight. Period.
There is still a big ‘if’ there.
Ward hasn’t made 168 since 2013 and isn’t fighting there this weekend. 172 can be considered a dress rehearsal for a permanent stay at Light Heavyweight. The catchweight doesn’t favor Smith, a fighter who has fought mostly at Middle and Super Middleweight. If Ward looks effective at the weight, and he will, then maybe it’s time to put Golovkin-Ward to bed for now.
Maybe the real fight is Ward-Kovalev.
The business of boxing has kept the unified titlist Kovalev and lineal Light Heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson apart. With Ward still involved with HBO, there aren’t the same obstacles to a showdown with the dangerous Russian. Size isn’t an issue here either.
Ward won Gold at Light Heavyweight in 2004 at the amateur limit of 178 lbs., the same division Kovalev competed in during his unpaid days, and rehydrated to above the limit for the Dawson fight. Kovalev hasn’t fought above the Light Heavyweight limit since 2011. Ward, in defeating Dawson, skirted the Light Heavyweight division. Against Kovalev we could see him against the real thing as a professional. Both standing six-feet tall, they’d look each other in the eye and find the sort of foil neither has yet faced.
After defining himself as one of the world’s best in the Super Six, Ward returns to a refreshed landscape with two possible opponents that could redefine him and perhaps even finish his picture in the history of the sport. Both are as dangerous to him as he is to them. All have reached a similar level of television attraction.
A superstar could emerge from this trio of stars.
What pairings emerge will loom over every punch thrown in Ward-Smith.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com