By Radio Rahim
Fight fans are already beating the drums for a future fight between world champions Gennady "GGG" Golovkin and Andre Ward.
But another anticipated fight is slowly build steam as well, between Ward (27-0, 14KOs) and WBA/IBF/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (27-0-1, 24KOs).
Ward was last seen in the ring in November 2013, but he makes his return on June 20th when he faces middleweight contender Paul Smith.
The fight with Smith could be a sign that Ward is considering the possibility of moving up to the light heavyweight limit. The match is contracted for a catch-weight of 172-pounds.
After that return, Ward will voice his future plans - on whether he drop back to the 168-limit and defend his WBA title, or make the full move to 175-pounds.
Kovalev, who defends his titles against mandatory challenger Nadjib Mohammedi on July 25th, is very interested in facing Ward.
"I think right now it's early to speak about Andre Ward, because right now he's still not at light heavy. When he comes up to 175, then we'll have a reason to speak about our fight. But for me, I think it's going to be a very important fight and a very interesting fight. You know, because he's a very great boxer, he's an Olympic champion," Kovalev told BoxingScene.com.
"He fought against our best champion of the world, Evgeny Makarenko, who was in the Olympic games. He won [against] our guy in Olympic games. [Makarenko] was our best in Russia. Big respect to Andre Ward, but I'm waiting to see if he will come to 175 to welcome [him]."