Who should Andre Ward fight next?

Willie Monroe Jr up to 172 it is then.

Fonfara or Chilemba

Ideally, he'd fight DeGale or the winner of Groves/Jack. If he can't get those, then Pascal or Fonfara. The problem is, 3 of these match-ups seem unlikely.

Well if it's on BET I'd say Donnie Simpson.

I think you are underestimating Golovkin's popularity. I mean, yes, we will know for sure in October. I suppose I could be wrong...but Golovkin is a star now. He's not a superstar, but he is a star. And Ward is a great boxer, but he just isn't popular on a national level. Of course, Roc Nation can help in that regard, but he already has a long way to catch up to GGG in my opinion. And I've been to a few Golovkin fights on the east coast, and I never paid less than $80 for a ticket. What has Golovkin actually done to make him a star, even at this point? HBO loves to feature him, willing to put him out there against anyone as often as he's willing to fight, and he's seemingly shown that he's got a SoCal fanbase to look toward (tickets being so underpriced at their face value undermines that a bit, but I'll let that go). Were it not for Kellerman being on SportsNation, I couldn't fathom watching Golovkin sit for an extended segment on First Take or Good Morning America or The View, or any real media obligation where he has to really have a conversation. With Ward, I have none of those doubts. Ward is a great boxer, is a pretty big deal in the Bay Area, and has a far bigger national/international name then what people seem willing to acknowledge. With RocNation now in his corner, Ward finally has an outfit with the marketing heft and financial weight to push him as hard nationally as he was pushed in the Bay Area. Lastly, Golovkin has had four fights on the East Coast, only one of which was held in a venue that seated(gr?) more than 5k seats (wikipedia has the capacity at the MSG Theater at 5600 for concerts, and that number is likely far smaller for an actual fight card). Not gonna ask where your seat was, but for small venues like that, I'd hope that you had decent seats.

Chudinov vs Buglioni winner...at 168. Defend that belt

If he ever wants to be recognized as a great fighter he should take on a decent fighter abroad and travel, someone like Abraham in germany or DeGale in england would be okay.

I'll take the bet.....PM me with a confirmation so I won't forget (cuz I probably will forget depending on how long Ward takes to schedule his next bout). We got a bet then. I'll sig it.

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view6/3854582/stephen-a-smith-sipping-coffee-o.gif I'll take the bet.....PM me with a confirmation so I won't forget (cuz I probably will forget depending on how long Ward takes to schedule his next bout).

For the jokers on here, I'm willing to bet 70 quad that Wards next fight won't be on BET or in Oakland. http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view6/3854582/stephen-a-smith-sipping-coffee-o.gif

Ward would never sell out the Barclays,I honestly think it would be hard for Golovkin to do as well,but he'd definitely get closer than Ward.Coincidentally Danny Garcia had a million dollar gate there against Peterson. Definitely a ton of seats to figure out selling, but I sincerely believe that Ward has an easier way to sell those, for the simple fact that he can go on Hot97, The Breakfast Club on 106.1, Sway in the Morning on Shade 45, the rest of the NYC radio circuit, the local New York press circuit, and the other "touch the hands" type promoting efforts needed to put butts in the seats in NYC, without any inkling of possible language barriers (Ward being able to also run through the morning shows, in addition to also being a fit across the ESPN channels, would also help draw notice for the TV numbers). You force Golovkin into a position where he's having to have an extended English conversation with non-boxing people and his "Golovkin-isms" are downright cringeworthy. No idea what the final gate figure ends up being, but Ward has more paths to get people to pony up then Golovkin does.

What are you talking about? Ward puts up free tickets and his people bellow what a strong showing they had for Smith, lol! Remember the 'Church Discount' he was offering for that fight aswell? Ward/Rodriguez bombed in Oakland - 4,158 with $277k gate.... Ward/Bika in Oakland bombed - 4,100, Ward/Abraham in Stub Hub bombed - 5,311, even Ward/Froch in AC bombed - 5,626. If Golovkin had a caliber of opponent like Dawson, he'd have got double what Ward got for that fight. Hell, Ward/Dawson was on Cinco De Mayo weekend - a major time for boxing and they still did less in tv & attendance than Golovkin did vs Monroe. Once upon a time Ward was a live draw - (Miranda @7,818, Kessler @10,277, Green @8,797), but paying fans caught on to how boring his fights could get. Since the Allen Green fight Ward's only ever sold more than 5,000 tix once and that was a hyped up fight vs Dawson. Golovkin already sold over 7,800 tix in the summer vs Geale and Lemieux sold 6,500 vs Rosado - both in NYC. This fight will out sell the 7,611 for Ward/Dawson by atleast 1.5x. Ward-Dawson did over $700k at the gate, regardless of whatever tickets they were handing out. Team Golovkin and their fans were creaming themselves over Golovkin doing $500k at StubHub against Rubio. You keep beating your chest about Golovkin selling all of these tickets, yet blatantly ignore that the bulk of those tickets were sold of for $10-$20. Floyd Mayweather sold 16k tickets for the Robert Guerrero fight, while "Canelo" Alvarez sold 40k tickets for his fight with Austin Trout. pretty sure that most rational people would've said to hell with those extra 34k tickets (extreme example, but Ward's avg ticket price on his 7600 tickets was literally over double what Golovkin's avg ticket price has ever been for any of his disclosed fight gates).

Willing to make a wager on that statement? (Speaking of actual money at the gate, since Team Golovkin is more than happy pushing out the $15 tickets and trumpet that as success). because, simply put, I don't see Golovkin being able to go through the New York radio circuit or complete the interviews interactions across the ESPN progams in enough conversational English to do much ticket moving, let alone seeing the famed "Mexican style" nonsense draw out the Boriqua fans. I think you are underestimating Golovkin's popularity. I mean, yes, we will know for sure in October. I suppose I could be wrong...but Golovkin is a star now. He's not a superstar, but he is a star. And Ward is a great boxer, but he just isn't popular on a national level. Of course, Roc Nation can help in that regard, but he already has a long way to catch up to GGG in my opinion. And I've been to a few Golovkin fights on the east coast, and I never paid less than $80 for a ticket.

At 168, DeGale. At 175, Fonfara.

Why are Stevenson, Bika and Fonfara in the poll? Haymon/PBC fighters are unavailable to Roc Nation fighters if I know it right. I don't know if this is true to Degale too or not because he is still promoted by Hearn. If he stays in 168 then maybe a Degale fight would be the best for him, but if Groves beats Jack then Goves and Degale will fight each other I guess so then Arthur Abraham or Fedor Chudinoc would be the best opponents for him in 168. More likely Chudinov because he holds the paper version (regular) of Ward's belt so a clash between them would be relevant. I'm not really interested ina Ward vs Abraham II. If he goes up he should fight Chilemba first because now, Pascal, Kovalev and all the Haymon fighters there (Beterbiev, Stevenson, Eleider Alvarez, Fonfara) are unavailable to him. Chilemba, Yunieski Gonzalez, Mekhontsev, Braehmer or Sulivan Barrera would be good opponents for him next. on paper chilemba would be a good way to put his name in the lhw rankings, but it would be such an ugly fight that i don't think anyone would want to see it. if anything it would probably harm ward's drawing power. chilemba is best employed as a stylistic test for prospects, guys like beterbiev, mekhonstev and gvozdyk. a guy like ward has nothing to gain from him if ward's next fight is at lhw, then gonzalez would be cool. it'd be nice for gonzalez to be given another shot after the travesty of this weekend, and he has some hbo exposure now

Honestly I want him to fight stevenson,cos he has the balls to unify with kov

Why are Stevenson, Bika and Fonfara in the poll? Haymon/PBC fighters are unavailable to Roc Nation fighters if I know it right. I don't know if this is true to Degale too or not because he is still promoted by Hearn. If he stays in 168 then maybe a Degale fight would be the best for him, but if Groves beats Jack then Goves and Degale will fight each other I guess so then Arthur Abraham or Fedor Chudinoc would be the best opponents for him in 168. More likely Chudinov because he holds the paper version (regular) of Ward's belt so a clash between them would be relevant. I'm not really interested ina Ward vs Abraham II. If he goes up he should fight Chilemba first because now, Pascal, Kovalev and all the Haymon fighters there (Beterbiev, Stevenson, Eleider Alvarez, Fonfara) are unavailable to him. Chilemba, Yunieski Gonzalez, Mekhontsev, Braehmer or Sulivan Barrera would be good opponents for him next.

Willing to make a wager on that statement? (Speaking of actual money at the gate, since Team Golovkin is more than happy pushing out the $15 tickets and trumpet that as success). because, simply put, I don't see Golovkin being able to go through the New York radio circuit or complete the interviews interactions across the ESPN progams in enough conversational English to do much ticket moving, let alone seeing the famed "Mexican style" nonsense draw out the Boriqua fans.Ward would never sell out the Barclays,I honestly think it would be hard for Golovkin to do as well,but he'd definitely get closer than Ward.Coincidentally Danny Garcia had a million dollar gate there against Peterson.

Willing to make a wager on that statement? (Speaking of actual money at the gate, since Team Golovkin is more than happy pushing out the $15 tickets and trumpet that as success). because, simply put, I don't see Golovkin being able to go through the New York radio circuit or complete the interviews interactions across the ESPN progams in enough conversational English to do much ticket moving, let alone seeing the famed "Mexican style" nonsense draw out the Boriqua fans. What are you talking about? Ward puts up free tickets and his people bellow what a strong showing they had for Smith, lol! Remember the 'Church Discount' he was offering for that fight aswell? Ward/Rodriguez bombed in Oakland - 4,158 with $277k gate.... Ward/Bika in Oakland bombed - 4,100, Ward/Abraham in Stub Hub bombed - 5,311, even Ward/Froch in AC bombed - 5,626. If Golovkin had a caliber of opponent like Dawson, he'd have got double what Ward got for that fight. Hell, Ward/Dawson was on Cinco De Mayo weekend - a major time for boxing and they still did less in tv & attendance than Golovkin did vs Monroe. Once upon a time Ward was a live draw - (Miranda @7,818, Kessler @10,277, Green @8,797), but paying fans caught on to how boring his fights could get. Since the Allen Green fight Ward's only ever sold more than 5,000 tix once and that was a hyped up fight vs Dawson. Golovkin already sold over 7,800 tix in the summer vs Geale and Lemieux sold 6,500 vs Rosado - both in NYC. This fight will out sell the 7,611 for Ward/Dawson by atleast 1.5x.

team god is in a tough spot right now. they want to wait for golovkin to move up for a ppv, but they really shouldn't wait around for it. kovalev's ratings last night will give us an idea of how popular he is. that opponent was useless, and while the undercard was good, it wasn't what would be selling those tickets or getting those ratings primarily. the kovalev - ward fight will have to be on PPV. it sounds / looks like it's close to being there. i think these two will fight late next year on ppv. i don't think golovkin is going to fight ward at 168. ithink ward's best move is to fight a contender at 175, and eventually fight kovalev at 175 for all of those freaking marbles. the winner of ward - kovalev at 175 will be in teh discussion for the best p4p fighter in the world.