Ward asked for all 3 of his fights to be in his hometown?

and you have to think arkansas and michigan are no big fight markets so it makes sense. I doubt taylor or dirrell draw half that amount in their cities bc they r dead cities A few years ago Taylor was drawing 10,000+ crowds in Little Rock, but that was when he was an undefeated champion and a local hero. Lackluster title defenses and a few losses have seen the fairweather fans disappear; there is no way he could draw a bigger gate here than Ward can in Oakland, so from a financial standpoint it makes sense to hold the fight there.

if it is true ima be at everyone

he's fighting his countrymen next anyway so it shouldn't really matter!!.....I just hope JT doesn't have to go to Denmark to fight Kessler :boxing:........does JT even get a home fight?!?.....if not, DiBella fukked up!!

They could have had 50,000 in Denmark or Germany for Kessler-Ward. and have all 3 fights in europe? no they did the draw and went to the one established us market and 2 relatively bigger markets in europe.

and you have to think arkansas and michigan are no big fight markets so it makes sense. I doubt taylor or dirrell draw half that amount in their cities bc they r dead cities

Oh well, I'm glad. Andre Ward is an uprising talent. Oakland has a great fan base. How many American fighters can sell out arenas? I bet you Andre Ward's next fight has a big crowd. If he keeps winning he'll only get bigger.

On the bright side....there were over 10,000 fans in attendance at oracle arena for the ward-kessler fight.

Forgot about this thread. Right... cheers for the replies. I read somewhere on here that Ward asked for the fights to be in his backyard and wondered about that. Seems a little odd. 100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3

Is this true? i don't think ward would've been in the tourny without the hometown advantage...

Is this true? yes so the refs can accuse his opponents of the holding. :lol1:

I'm betting Ward would fight wherever he was told to, but it seems his promoter is insistent on him staying in the US and as close to the Bay area as possible. It sounds like the Taylor fight will be in Oakland, but mainly because that is where the most money can be made. Taylor's fanbase in Little Rock isn't so great right now with him having dropped almost completely off the local radar after having lost 4 of his last 5 fights. And Oakland is loving Ward at the moment. It seems Taylor has instructed Lou Dibella to do whatever it takes to make his paychecks as big as possible, even if it means travel, so it wouldn't surprise me to see this fight where it can sell the most tickets... which is Oakland.

Yeah Its true. why else would kessler travel to wards hometown when he was the champion? I don't think all 3 of Ward's fights are in his hometown. They are all in America, I thought all the fuss was because he was the only guy who wouldn't have to cross the ocean? It's not really Ward's fault as he likely would have been forced travel had DiBella and Taylor decided they would rather travel twice to make more money. When Ward and Dirrell meet in the 3rd round the fight will likely land in New York, Atlantic City or Las Vegas. Not Oakland. I also haven't seen any confirmation that Taylor-Ward will be in Oakland, obviously it will be in the States in which case any location besides Oakland is advantage Taylor.

Yes, all of his fights will be in his backyard. If he's fighting other americans next why would he travel? When is he fighting froch?

Yeah Its true. why else would kessler travel to wards hometown when he was the champion?

Ward’s next two fights are scheduled to be against fellow Americans Jermain Taylor and Andre Dirrell, with both set to be held in Oakland. (Source: Yahoo! Sports, "Fighting beyond the fights", Martin Rogers) Apparently they asked, and their request was granted. Hometown cooking is not good for the sport at all, whether in the western coast of America or deep in the heart of Germany.

No this is not true... When they were making the fights it kinda just ended up that way... They showed this on the "Fight Camp 360" or whatever that show is called... I'm not sure if they ended up changing it but I know it just was the luck of the draw

If that's true its prety soft. Is there any evidence that this is true though?

Never heard that shit.