By Keith Idec
According to Andre Ward, he and Sergey Kovalev are fighting for more than the IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight titles next week.
Ward envisions the winner of their 12-round light heavyweight showdown November 19 in Las Vegas earning the No. 1 spot on the sport’s subjective pound-for-pound lists.
Russia’s Kovalev (30-0-1, 26 KOs) is ranked No. 2 on BoxingScene.com’s pound-for-pound list, one spot ahead of Ward (30-0, 15 KOs), of Hayward, California. The Ring magazine lists Kovalev second and Ward fourth. Espn.com rates Kovalev third and Ward fifth.
Each of the three aforementioned websites rank Nicaragua’s Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-0, 38 KOs), the WBC super flyweight champion, as the No. 1 fighter, pound-for-pound, in the world. The 32-year-old Ward thinks that should change once he and Kovalev finish fighting in an HBO Pay-Per-View main event at T-Mobile Arena ($69.95 in HD).
“It’s hard to say, but to tell you the truth I think it would be really, really hard to argue against it,” Ward said Tuesday on a conference call regarding the Kovalev-Ward winner moving to No. 1.
“I think just based on both of our resumes and based on the fact that we both are willing to step up and fight at this stage of our careers. We’re both 30-0, we both have a lot to gain and a lot to lose. And personally, I think the winner of this fight should be pound-for-pound No. 1. It’s hard to argue against that.”
Road to Kovalev/Ward, HBO Sports special leading up to their pay-per-view light heavyweight title showdown, debuts Saturday, November 12 at 12:30 a.m. ET/PT on HBO.
Kovalev vs. Ward takes place Saturday, November 19 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
