By Keith Idec

Sergey Kovalev’s trainer senses Andre Ward doesn’t really want to fight Kovalev again.

Ward is contractually bound to an immediate rematch of a November 19 bout Ward won by unanimous decision at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. After tasting Kovalev’s power, John David Jackson just doesn’t think the 2004 Olympic gold medalist will want to risk his unblemished professional record against the hard-hitting Kovalev a second time.

“They don’t want the rematch,” Jackson told BoxingScene.com. “Some fans are saying, ‘Now Andre has him figured out.’ No, now we have him figured out. Now I know what Sergey needs to do to close the show the second time around. So for us, even though we didn’t get the decision, now I know what Sergey needs to do to better himself, so that he can go ahead and get the decisive win either by knockout or by decision.”

Jackson suggested that Kovalev can get in slightly better condition and can attack Ward’s body better in their rematch. Effective body work and superior conditioning helped Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) to bounce back from a second-round knockdown and win a unanimous decision – 114-113 on all three scorecards – and take the IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight titles from Russia’s Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs).

According to Jackson, Ward’s performance during the second half of that closely contested 12-rounder is about the best Ward can perform against his fighter.

“Ward can’t do much more than he did because he can’t punch any harder, he can’t be in any greater shape than he was in, so he can just run the whole fight,” Jackson said. “But Sergey can do a lot of different things to improve the outcome of the fight for him, so I welcome the rematch.”

Like Kovalev and his promoter, Kathy Duva, Jackson doesn’t think Ward won their first fight.

“It’s amazing how they gave the fight to Andre, 114-113,” Jackson said. “But this is boxing and it is what it is. It wasn’t the first bad decision and it probably won’t be the last bad decision. So you take it with a grain of salt. They have a rematch clause. Hopefully, Andre honors it. If he’s real, and he says he’s the “Son of God,” he’ll admit that he lost the fight and he should wanna vindicate himself in a rematch.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.