If Ward defeats Smith, who would you like to see him in with before the end of 2016

Chudinov is in negotiations with Murray who just signed with Eddie Hearn. Murray should have no real problems beating Fedor, who's a small SMW with no real stand out abilities. Think Hearn would want to build a match up between Murray and DeGale for next summer where he can make some money off them. Additionally Murray is not able to fight in the US either. As for Golovkin, he just made $1.5M for the first time solely from HBO, but he's been making over a mill per fight for over a year now due to foreign tv. Don't think his gate is doing too bad either. Golovkin's earnings are based on demand. Ward's are based on a tournament he won 4 years ago, thus the reason HBO turned down his recent fight and he's now on BET while pressing on the View. Sincerely doubt that the foreign TV numbers were all that massive for fights like Golovkin-Rubio (basically airing 2am-4am across Europe); fights from Monaco, at a far more hospitable time in Europe, were likely worth something on foreign TV. could be wrong, though. If Chudinov-Murray happens, and Murray win, Ward misses out on the Chudinov fight (wouldn't count out Murray as a possible Ward opponent, especially considering that Degale vs Groves(if he can beat Badou Jack(c)) II is likely the big summer stadium fight; if the pot is big enough, I don't see Ward having an issue traveling for that fight). Still, Ward would simply then go down the WBA's Top 15 challengers and pick a fight (#2 Froch doesn't want the fight outside of his literal home city, Top Rank isn't going to throw #3 Gilberto Ramirez in with Ward, #4 Sturm isn't leaving Germany, #5 Groves is targeting another title, and #6 Andre Dirrell/#8 Chavez Jr/#9 Julius Jackson are all with Haymon). Patrick Nielsen(#7), Rogelio Medina(#10) and, if desperation sets in, Derek Edwards (#14, also assuming that he manages to beat Gilberto Ramirez) are basically the names available, if not the Chudinov (or Murray) fight. Ward's next fight isn't on HBO because HBO is pinching pennies; laugh at BET picking up the fight if you want. Ward is likely to get the purse that he was asking for, have his fight available to triple the number of homes available to HBO, while marketing his own fight on a program that draws double the high watermark of viewers who watched Golovkin-Monroe. If the BET move works out, Ward-Smith draws a similar number to Golovkin-Monroe, the promotional efforts increase the gate at Oracle, and the cross-programming opens the stage for Ward's next fight to be out of New York.

Smith on June 20th, followed by defending his WBA championship against wba champions Chudinov in the Fall/Winter 2015. Wouldn't surprise me one bit if Andre Ward;s next fight is held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Depending on how he looks in those two fights, he heads into 2016 ready to take on anyone. And, by that point, Cotto would've vacated the WBC middleweight title, and HBO would be looking at ponying up even more money for another nothing fight by Golovkin. Golovkin would need a big fight (Golovkin just earned his first $1m payday, so harping about a $5m guarantee is a waste of effort), Ward would need a big fight, and HBO would need to make a big fight. Chudinov is in negotiations with Murray who just signed with Eddie Hearn. Murray should have no real problems beating Fedor, who's a small SMW with no real stand out abilities. Think Hearn would want to build a match up between Murray and DeGale for next summer where he can make some money off them. Additionally Murray is not able to fight in the US either. As for Golovkin, he just made $1.5M for the first time solely from HBO, but he's been making over a mill per fight for over a year now due to foreign tv. Don't think his gate is doing too bad either. Golovkin's earnings are based on demand. Ward's are based on a tournament he won 4 years ago, thus the reason HBO turned down his recent fight and he's now on BET while pressing on the View.

Groves, DeGale, Murray, Abraham, Steiglitz, Sturm can all make more money fighting in the UK/Germany than in Oakland. The Dirrells, Jack, Love, Chavez, Bute, Jackson, Benson are PBC fighters and won't be fighting Ward. RN & James Prince aren't friendly with Haymon. TR is in no hurry to throw away their prospects in Rameriz and Hart. That leaves Ward to feast on Perriban, Rubio, Hadillah Mohoumadi, Christopher Rebrasse, or potentially weight drain some more LHW's like Oosthuizen and Askew. If Ward and RN are truly hungry for a meaningful fight, they'll either move up to 175 and fight Kovalev or pony up something like a $4-5 million guarantee for Golovkin. Smith on June 20th, followed by defending his WBA championship against wba champions Chudinov in the Fall/Winter 2015. Wouldn't surprise me one bit if Andre Ward;s next fight is held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Depending on how he looks in those two fights, he heads into 2016 ready to take on anyone. And, by that point, Cotto would've vacated the WBC middleweight title, and HBO would be looking at ponying up even more money for another nothing fight by Golovkin. Golovkin would need a big fight (Golovkin just earned his first $1m payday, so harping about a $5m guarantee is a waste of effort), Ward would need a big fight, and HBO would need to make a big fight.

Kovalev Froch rematch is pointless, first fight wasn't that close GGG is too small whether he himself says so or not, he's barely big enough for 160 and despite his baby face he's 33... Groves/DeGale are solid fights but nothing would have the buzz around it that Ward-Kovalev would. Same height, Ward billed as 1 inch taller. Andre had an Olympic Gold medal at 178 lbs and is now fighting at a 172 pound catchweight so 175 will be pretty familiar ground. Kovalev-Ward should be the fight everyone wants assuming Andre looks good in his comeback. I used to like him and I think people will put his bizarre mid career hiatus in the past if he can beat another top 168, fight Kovalev, he would have a great career. note: Ward won the light heavyweight Olympic Gold medal fighting out of division (not able to find a source, but I recall Ward weighing in at 173 for the Olympic tournament, at basically his walk-around weight; Ward fighting up a division opened up a spot at 165 for Andre Dirrell, the other medal hopeful for USA Boxing. Ward immediately debuting, as a pro, at 160, should've been enough to dead such talk). oh well.

If Ward is really at 173, why did he demand the catch weight? Because he'd been out of the ring for nearly a year and a half and didn't want to have any worry about possibly draining himself (especially not knowing what his body would be able to give him due to the extended lay off) for a non-title fight. No weight cut needed for the June 20th fight, with the distinct likelihood of no real weight cut needed to get to 168 (could've likely got off that 5 pounds for this fight, so getting there the next time out, fresh off of a fight camp, shouldn't bee too rough either).

Sergey Kovalev Ward can't make 168 anymore, that's why his fight with Smith is at 172. picture might not come through, but he's at 173.5 with two weeks to go. moving on My next fight is contracted at 172lbs. With 2 1/2 weeks left, my weight is good!! #June20th #WardVsSmith A photo posted by Andre Ward (@andresogward) on Jun 3, 2015 at 10:39am PDT

Ggg/ward will never happen. For team ggg its too much risk without big money. He can continue to knock out bums and the public will buy in because of the KO's. He only needs to step up the comp level on sites like this ward has roc nation behind him who are known to have deep pockets. if they can offer golovkin better money than a canelo fight would promise, i am sure the fight can be made sooner than later. because i doubt their viewing figures alone at this point could justify the total purse that they would surely demand, which means hbo are not going to prioritise the match-up right now

Ggg/ward will never happen. For team ggg its too much risk without big money. He can continue to knock out bums and the public will buy in because of the KO's. He only needs to step up the comp level on sites like this

If he looks impressive, then Golovkin. It's the biggest fight of all mentioned (in America). We know Ward isn't going to travel to England to face Froch.

Groves, DeGale, Murray, Abraham, Steiglitz, Sturm can all make more money fighting in the UK/Germany than in Oakland. The Dirrells, Jack, Love, Chavez, Bute, Jackson, Benson are PBC fighters and won't be fighting Ward. RN & James Prince aren't friendly with Haymon. TR is in no hurry to throw away their prospects in Rameriz and Hart. That leaves Ward to feast on Perriban, Rubio, Hadillah Mohoumadi, Christopher Rebrasse, or potentially weight drain some more LHW's like Oosthuizen and Askew. If Ward and RN are truly hungry for a meaningful fight, they'll either move up to 175 and fight Kovalev or pony up something like a $4-5 million guarantee for Golovkin.

needs one more tune up right? Ward-Smith II

DeGale then Kovalev....yup, time for Ward to step up and be a man.

... DeGale doesn't fight Ward... Groves, maybe...

No, I'll even agree that 168 has more talent naturally; but they are unproven (160 does have more depth though and has better prospects without a doubt). What does GGG win if he beats them now? Nothing! They'll keep saying he's beating nothing but bums. If the guys at 168 are as good as you think why don't they move up to 175? If GGG has to do it why don't they? Why didn't Froch move up? You're hating because you want GGG to move up when he still has work to do at 160. You just want to see this guy move up and wishing to see a guy at 168 beat him. Yeah you keep hating :bottle: :bottle:. It's about the standards. Golovkin is hyped up to the skies. There are people who claim him to be as good as MW ATG-s while his best win is against Murray. They don't say to guys in 168 (except to Ward) to move up because that division is clearly better than middleweight RIGHT NOW and they say to Golovkin because the guy was made out as a future HOF-er, a monster and etc... while he is 33 years old and is in one of the weakest divisions right now in boxing. Golovkin shouldn't wait 2-3 ears for those middleweight talents because Golovkin isn't that young. So in short: he isn't that young and he is in a weak weight class which he clearly dominates. So if he moves up ever he should move up now not when he will be older... If Groves, Degale woould be in a weak weight class while they would be as hyped as GGG now people demand them to move up. I don't think that GGG is an exception in this. You seemed like a reasonable, logical GGG fan so far (one of the few) so don't fuck it up and don't go full retard. People don't say at middleweight that it's weak because Golovkin dominates it but because it's simply weak. Don't be salty please.

I want to see Ward fights Golovkin, Degale, Kovalev maybe in this order, the first two can be switched. Kovalev is only last because if he fights Kova then he will probably never fight GGG. So GGG or Degale first then Kovalev. After that he can still beat the likes of Pascal, Groves or Chilemba. I intentionally left out the Haymon guys because the Haymon-Hova beef.

If Fonfara or Artur Beterbiev don't get there first Ward should go after the WBA world title at 175 and fight Jurgen Brahmer

degale-groves will happen before ward gets his hands on either of them. chudinov holds the babby version of ward's title, so why not "unify" with him? he looked like a decent fighter against sturm, although he should prove way too crude to trouble ward

So you think 160 is a better division than 168...I'm hating cause I think the guys at 168 have more talent... I'll keep being a hater No, I'll even agree that 168 has more talent naturally; but they are unproven (160 does have more depth though and has better prospects without a doubt). What does GGG win if he beats them now? Nothing! They'll keep saying he's beating nothing but bums. If the guys at 168 are as good as you think why don't they move up to 175? If GGG has to do it why don't they? Why didn't Froch move up? You're hating because you want GGG to move up when he still has work to do at 160. You just want to see this guy move up and wishing to see a guy at 168 beat him. Yeah you keep hating :bottle: :bottle:.

I would like to see Ward fight 1-Kovalev 2-GGG 3-Degale in that order

It sucks because you want to believe it sucks. You know GGG is better than everyone in that division and thus saying it sucks. If GGG wasn't a Middleweight, most would say that's a Hot division because there's is about 10 contenders in that division (and has a lot of great prospects coming up). Most other weight classes have like 3-5 fighters in the running. The truth about the Super Middleweight division is that it is filled with a lot of unproven talent (whether you agree or not), most of the guys there have not even won a belt yet or just barely crowned themselves champions (it's post Froch era). So why is it so great? Because they pass the eye test? That's not enough, people perceive that division to be great because it's a division that is always shown on TV (mainstream), so it has more recognizable names. There is way more competitive divisions than 168, that don't get any love and people think it's a weak division because they only follow mainstream boxing. DeGale vs GGG will be a huge fight, but not right now. In a few years when DeGale is a unified champ and GGG is the undisputed Middleweight champion, this fight will be even bigger. I'm sure even DeGale's people know this. Like I said before Ward is going to be the only one that struggles because he's the one that needs fights, this guy thought he was Floyd Mayweather (but he's not). GGG does have options at 160 btw. Canelo, N'Dam, Lee, Lemieux, Cotto, if they could get some of the PBC guys (Jacobs, Quillen and Lara if he was actually serious about fighting, but if he doesn't want to move up then no problem from me). I know there is guys that think they saw some weaknesses against Monroe and want to try and tame the beast and some fighters from 154 that move up in the next year. GGG is going to try and unify and break the 20 defenses of the Middleweight title record (and obviously get the big money fights AT 160! There isn't any at 168, except Froch at the moment). You know what GGG doesn't need your approval. He's going to keep selling out arenas and putting big drama shows for his fans. I'm never going to convince you of anything, so the only thing I could say is, Keep hating!! :boxing: :bottle: So you think 160 is a better division than 168...I'm hating cause I think the guys at 168 have more talent... I'll keep being a hater