By Victor Salazar
New York, New York - The war of pleasantries seemed to have begun at the recent press conference to kick off the highly anticipated showdown taking place on November 19th in Las Vegas between Andre Ward (30-0, 15 KO's) and Sergey Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KO's).
The two will meet each other inside the new T-Mobile Arena on HBO pay-per-view. However when they met on Tuesday before their press conference began, Kovalev told the media that he said 'hi' to Ward - and claims the Olympic gold medal winner ignored him and kept on walking.
Because of such actions, Kovalev had a message for Ward, "F*** him, I'm going to do all I can to kick his ass."
Ward has a different account of the interaction.
"We saw each other after my last fight and we just saw each other pass in the hallway today," Ward told BoxingScene.com. "He can kick it off now. I don't know what he's talking about but if that's how he wants to motivate himself, cool. But we're not cool. We're not friends or buddies. We're getting ready to fight."
Ward said there's respect and feels Kovalev maybe looking for extra motivation.
"There's a mutual respect," said Ward. "We passed each other in the halfway. I gave him a head nod and I felt like he gave me one too. I'm not going to shake his hand, not sure what he was expecting. But you know how it is, guys need to find a way to motivate them, not sure what he was expecting."
Words aside, Ward expects to be in with the very best on November 19th.
"Kovalev is a different animal in terms of his accuracy, skillset and consistency at the top," explained Ward. "He's fought the best and fought them on the road, that has to be respected."
Ward feels his advantages among other things will be when both are on the inside.
"Most European fighters aren't trained on the inside, not saying they can't learn," said the former super middleweight champion. "They like range and want you on the end of your punches. I haven't seen too many European fighters with an educated inside game."
Come November 19th, Ward feels his experience in boxing has made him ready for his biggest moment.
"Its the biggest fight I ever had but I been in this situation before and my experience has prepared me for this moment. I embrace these moments, I know it's not going to be easy but I'm not going to be denied."
