by David P. Greisman
Andre Ward (30-0, 15KOs) has been aware of Sergey Kovalev (30-0, 26KOs), but he hadn’t watched much of him. That was mutual; Kovalev hadn’t seen much of Ward either back when Ward was competing at 168 and Kovalev at 175. They’re both light heavyweights now and due to meet on Nov. 19.
Earlier this year was the first time Ward had seen a Kovalev fight from start to finish.
“I think the first full fight that I ever watched of his was the rematch with [Jean] Pascal,” Ward said. “I haven’t watched much at all because he wasn’t my next opponent.”
He didn’t need to see Kovalev live all those times in order to prepare for their fight, though.
“I’ve been around long enough. I got 10 weeks to really, really dissect and look at the small things and nuances,” Ward said in mid-September. “Obviously my coach is doing his job. We have discussions all the time about things.”
And there are others who want to help Ward out.
“With a big fight like this, my phone started ringing: ‘I sparred with him.’ Or ‘I was in his camp.’ Or ‘I fought him, and this is what I see.’ That stuff has been happening since the fight was announced,” Ward said. “But I know what I’m looking at. I’ve seen him fight. I’ve seen clips. I know what I’m looking at. I’m sure I’ll gain more knowledge at training camp as we dig a little bit deeper. It doesn’t take six months to watch a guy. Ten weeks is plenty enough time to see what I want to see.”
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
