By Radio Rahim
John David Jackson, trainer of IBF/WBO/WBA light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (30-0, 26KOs), laughed off some recent statements from Olympic gold medal winner Andre Ward (30-0, 15KOs), who compared some of his stylistic attributes to a mixture of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins.
Ward will attempt to unseat Kovalev on November 19th, as the headline bout of an HBO Pay-Per-View event.
Ward closed the deal on the fall showdown last night, when he dominated Alexander Brand over twelve rounds at The Oracle in Oakland, California. Kovalev was in action last month, when he won a twelve round decision over Isaac Chilemba in Russia.
In the post fight presser to his win over Brand, Ward described the different stylistic factors that he incorporated from watching other fighters work their craft.
Ward says his style incorporates moves and strategies from four division champion Jones, five division champion Mayweather Jr. and former two division unified champion Hopkins.
“I think I’m a combination of Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather. That may sound arrogant... I'm just saying, but those are the guys I really studied and that’s who I have in my style and obviously Andre Ward. Virgil’s style mixed in with all of those guys," Ward explained.
"I can fight inside. I can get rough. I can be flashy. I can do certain things when I need to. I can be really systematic like Floyd and break a guy down. So I think I’ve taken something from all three of those guys."
"At the same time, I try to stay true to who I am and be myself if that makes sense. I try to be formless like Bruce Lee said. I don’t have a style. What I need to be is what I need to be."
Jackson is not in agreement with Ward's take.
"No, he is far from Roy, and Floyd and he has a little bit of Bernard in him. Listen, Ward is good at what Ward does. His style is different from everybody else's and he has mastered that. It is not the most exciting style in the world and it's not fan favorite, but it works for him and it got him to be as good as he is today and you can't take him lightly," Jackson said.
"So it works for him and whatever shortcomings he has we have to expose that in this fight. So for him to say he like Roy, no. Floyd? No. A little like Bernard? Yes. But he is not them. He is Ward and that works for him. He should be happy with what he's done and not compare himself to those fighters. He should be happy with what he's done but he can't do what they did."
