By Steve Kim
Tom Loeffler, the managing director of K2 Promotions and the chief architect behind the ascension of Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin, was a bit miffed at the recent statements that were made by Andre Ward , who claims to have made a 50-50 offer to face Golovkin and criticized the WBA/WBO middleweight champion for turning him down.
"Honestly, it's disappointing because [Ward] specifically asked not to bring up his name [when I saw him] at the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight and after [that] I spoke to the team and asked [trainer] Abel [Sanchez] not to mention anything about Ward, but it seems like [Ward] can't stop talking about Gennady," said Loeffler to BoxingScene.com on Tuesday evening.
"It seems like one of those things where he's bringing up Gennady to keep his profile relevant when all we're doing with Gennady it trying to make the biggest fights possible for him."
Loeffler believes for Ward to state they made an offer is disingenuous - based on the fact that this offer came after his October 17th bout with David Lemieux had already been announced.
"We finalized the Lemieux fight, it's a huge event. It's the first unification fight that we've been able to secure for Gennady. It's his first time on HBO Pay-Per-View. We sold-out Madison Square Garden," said Loeffler, who clarified that are there just four hundred of the $50 tickets remaining for that show.
"And then he sends an offer with different conditions on it and we made it clear from the beginning that my response was that [Golovkin is] going to fight David Lemieux and then he'll fight the winner of 'Canelo (Saul Alvarez)-Miguel Cotto and then he's going to unify with the WBO champion. It's not rocket science."
Loeffler said of Ward - "He should be trying to unify his division instead of being obsessed with what Gennady has done."
Andre Ward's last bout on June 20th came at a catch-weight of 172-pounds, so just which division is he campaigning in?
"Well, that's the other question, nobody knows if he'll return to super middleweight," said Loeffler.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
