Hunter: Unfortunate Public Was Denied Ward-Golovkin

By Edward Chaykovsky

Virgil Hunter, trainer of former super middleweight king Andre Ward (28-0, 15KOs), is disappointed that a showdown never happened with WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs).

The two sides were never in serious talks, with Roc Nation Sports stating to BoxingScene.com several weeks ago that Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, rejected their advances in 36 minutes.

Ward eventually negotiated a three-fight agreement with HBO, but part of that agreement required Ward to move up in weight to 175-pounds - and Ward had to agree to a 2016 showdown with WBA/WBO/IBF light heavyweight king Sergey Kovalev.

Hunter is still surprised that Ward was required to move up when there were still potential opponents at 168-pounds and there was still the possibility of a fight with Golovkin. 

Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently made strong allegations that Ward was being forced to move up as part of a political move to get him beat while preserving the unbeaten run of Golovkin.

"I find it interesting that you can’t find an opponent at 168-pounds, you have a lot of new faces in that division and you also have new champions in that division. I think the opponents were there and I’m quite surprised that he was asked to go to that division before he and Golovkin got a chance to fight," Hunter told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.

"It didn’t happen, so we made the move, but it’s unfortunate that the public was denied that fight because it’s a fight that we really wanted and I think the public wanted it, and it didn’t happen."