By Edward Chaykovsky
Abel Sanchez, trainer of WBC/WBA/IBF/IBO middleweight king Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin, believes Andre Ward (29-0, 15KOs) needs several more fights to properly prepare himself for a fall showdown with WBO/WBA/IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (29-0-1, 26KOs).
Ward and Kovalev are signed on to face each other in the fall on HBO Pay-Per-View. Due to legal issues and training injuries, Ward has only fought twice since 2013.
He fought last June and stopped Paul Smith, who moved up to 172 for the match. Ward then returned to the ring in March and dominated previously unbeaten Sullivan Barrera in twelve rounds.
Sanchez trained Barrera for that fight and admits his charge was too inexperienced to overcome an opponent as seasoned as Ward.
"Sullivan at the time had seventeen fights, the young man is thirty-four years old and we got an opportunity to fight one of the best fighters in the world. We knew going in that it was going to be a very difficult fight. Andre wasn’t at his best but he still beat us, but you can’t have enough superlatives about Andre Ward. Andre Ward is just unbelievably gifted and Virgil Hunter has done a great job," Sanchez told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"Andre is not quite where he used to be four years ago, but a in another couple of fights he’ll be at the top again. As far as Sullivan, we lost to the best in the world, he’ll bounce back. Sullivan is in the gym already, hopefully he fights in the next couple of months and we rebound and get a little bit more experience. Hopefully down the line in another ten fights we’ll get that match up again and we can take a better advantage of it than we did this time."
Sanchez strongly feels Ward needs several more fights to properly prepare for a dangerous champion like Kovalev. Ward has the option to take another interim-fight before the fall meeting with Kovalev. A date of July 30th has been mentioned, with Nathan Clevery in the running. Kovalev blew away Cleverly in four rounds to pick up the WBO title in 2013. Kovalev is back in the ring on July 11 against Isaac Chilemba.
Unfortunately, Sanchez fears that a single interim-fight will not be enough to get Ward back to where he needs to be.
"I would love to see Andre have a couple more fights like the Barrera fight, where a fighter makes Andre think and try to get back those great attributes that he had in the past. If he gets a couple more fights, or even one good one like this, I think that it’s a competitive fight. If he fights him now with no other tune up fights, then I think Kovalev will be a little too much for him," Sanchez said.
