By Ryan Maquiñana
Dan Goossen is hoping his fighter Andre Ward will be a successful standard bearer for his promotional outfit on Oct. 29 when the WBA super middleweight titlist takes on WBC champion Carl Froch of England in the Showtime Super Six final.
At the Oakland press conference in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, Calif., Goossen discussed possible matchups between “S.O.G.” and light heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins, IBF super middleweight holder Lucian Bute, as well as newly minted No. 1 WBC contender Anthony Dirrell.
ON WHETHER THE SUPER SIX WINNER IS OBLIGATED TO FIGHT BUTE NEXT ON SHOWTIME:
“We’re not, but we came into this tournament with pre-arranged fights against the other five guys. There are plenty of opportunities to fight the Butes of the world after Oct. 29.”
ON WARD POSSIBLY MOVING UP IN WEIGHT TO FIGHT BERNARD HOPKINS:
“I think Andre’s been on the record that certainly, Bernard Hopkins is an attractive fight. But the way we look at it, we sat down at the beginning, and we told him he wouldn’t be facing any creampuffs. That’s why in his 19th pro fight, he was ready to fight tough opposition like Mikkel Kessler. So yes, Bute’s one of those names. There’s Kessler and the [WBO champ Robert] Stieglitz fight. There’s Hopkins. Who knows who will be in the landscape over the next eight months? We’ll have to see.
ON WARD FIGHTING ANTHONY OR ANDRE DIRRELL:
“Yeah, Anthony’s a possibility, and Andre’s always a possibility. Andre was prepared to fight Andre Dirrell in the third stage bout, and it didn’t work out, but Andre would be prepared to fight a Dirrell if we had to go that route.”
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He’s a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring’s Ratings Advisory Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com , check out his blog at www.maqdown.com or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
