By Keith Idec
Virgil Hunter isn’t concerned about his week away from Andre Ward’s training camp.
The veteran trainer, who has worked with Ward since Ward was 9 years old, wouldn’t have left last week if Hunter thought it would’ve had a negative impact on Ward’s preparation for his light heavyweight championship rematch against Sergey Kovalev. Hunter reminded reporters during a conference call Wednesday that Ward is an experienced pro and did everything he needed to do while Hunter traveled to France and Canada to work corners for other fighters he trains on back-to-back nights last weekend.
“It doesn’t affect training at all,” Hunter said. “He’s a professional. He’s been through this for 24 years of his life. So you have to understand that when he went to the Olympics, he wasn’t with me at all for three months. So he’s a professional. He knows what to do. He’s my least worry of leaving town for a week. It’s part of the sport, it’s part of the game and when you have a professional like Andre, you don’t worry about those things.”
The 33-year-old Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) is winding down training camp this week at Hunter’s gym in Oakland, California, for his light heavyweight championship rematch against Russia’s Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs). Their second fight is scheduled for June 17 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas (HBO Pay-Per-View).
Hunter’s hectic trip last week included a stop in Paris, where he worked the corner of 2016 French Olympian Tony Yoka. The 6-feet-7, 240-pound Yoka, who won the super heavyweight gold medal 10 months ago in Rio de Janeiro, stopped American Travis Clark (12-1, 8 KOs) in the second round of his pro debut Friday night.
Hunter promptly boarded a flight from Paris to Montreal, where he worked Andrzej Fonfara’s corner the next night. Hunter stepped in to stop that fight in the second round because Chicago’s Fonfara (29-5, 17 KOs, 1 NC) was taking too much punishment from WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) in their rematch Saturday night at Bell Centre.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
