By Luke Furman
WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (23-0-1, 21KOs) is more than happy to sign a contract to fight Andre Ward (27-0, 14KOs), the WBA champion at super middleweight.
Ward's options at 168 are standing to shrink down and some feel there is very little left for him to accomplish at the weight. While some expect Ward to move up in weight in the next twelve months, others believe he is holding firm at 168 for a potential future with Gennady Golovkin.
Kovalev would like to have the fight, but unlike Chad Dawson, the Russian puncher will not entertain the idea of moving down to super middleweight or meeting at a catch-weight.
"At the moment nobody is trying to make this fight, but if Ward wants to fight with me, the only place that it's going to happen is at 175," Kovalev said.
Kovalev made big splash last year in the sport, which he credits to fighting exclusively in America.
"Fighting only in Russia, there is no way that you can become a world-class boxer. You will remain only on the Russian level. To become a world-class fighter, you need to box all over the world, or at least in America, because there are going to be many world class fighters [in the country], and the television networks have regular broadcasts of boxing events in the United States," Koavlev said.
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org