By Keith Idec

Andre Ward has answered skeptics who doubted his rematch against Sergey Kovalev would come off June 17 in Las Vegas.

Ward announced Tuesday afternoon that a deal has been finalized for their rematch with a short Twitter message. Ward’s Tweet read: I’m going to keep it short & sweet, you got what you asked for, now you have to see me JUNE 17. This time leave the excuses at home. #EARNED.

Most of Ward’s message was directed at Kovalev, the knockout artist who has vehemently disputed Ward’s unanimous-decision victory over him in their November 19 fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Ward (31-0, 15 KOs), of Hayward, California, overcame a second-round knockdown to win by the same score, 114-113, on all three scorecards.

The 2004 Olympic gold medalist and former undisputed super middleweight champion also won the IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight titles from Russia’s Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs).

Scoring of the Ward-Kovalev fight caused hotly contested debates not only among Ward, Kovalev and their teams, but boxing fans and media worldwide.

There was an immediate rematch clause in the contracts they signed last summer for their first fight, but negotiations dragged along the past couple months until their second fight finally was announced Tuesday afternoon.

Their rematch will take place at Mandalay Bay Events Center, a smaller arena a couple blocks down Las Vegas Boulevard from T-Mobile Arena.

The first Ward-Kovalev fight drew an announced crowd of 13,010. Mandalay Bay Events Center has a capacity of roughly 12,000 for boxing.

The Ward-Kovalev rematch also will be televised by HBO Pay-Per-View, despite that their first fight drew only approximately 160,000 buys.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.