Andre Ward Gets To Fight Three Times In America??

[Shadows]

Why on earth they are holding Kessler/Ward in America I don't know.

Ward can't draw flies to **** while Kessler would sell out a stadium in Denmark lecturing on the concept of paint drying...

Ward brought in nearly 10,000 for the Miranda fight. I suspect that he'll bring in a lot more for Kessler, considering it's a title fight.

Plus, during the presser, Kalle said they were expect Danish fans to come over.

Well I cannot see the schedule changing opponents wise. The tournament would lose a lot in prestige should that happen.

I believe the only thing that's still negotiable is the choice of venues. Hennesey went out in the danish medias the other day saying that Froch likely would travel to Copenhagen to face Kessler in March. Of course the danish press went somewhat overboard by the sheer prospect of having this big fight in Denmark so what Hennesey added was well hidden in the transcripts. He said something like this:

"...but we don't know for sure yet. Sauerland and I will determine if the fight is going to be in Nottingham or Copenhagen based on where the fight will generate the most revenue."

Well per the video, Kessler-Taylor seems to be changed to the second fight. This would make, based upon previous speculation, Kessler-Froch the third fight. Froch also mentioned fighting Kessler at Nottingham Forest's City Ground; a task that, IMO, would be very, very difficult to pull off during the late winter/early spring. But then again, the proposed second and third round dates were based on speculation too.

[Clegg]

It seems like bad negotiating by Sauerland having Kessler, as the champion, to travel. It really should have been the other way around.

I would expect Sauerland/Kessler to get a fantastic split by having to fight in Oakland. Something like 80/20 would be needed to compensate for the loss of homefield.

I think part of it is that they wanted to have one of the opening round fights in the US. Froch travelled last time so I guess that's why he got to fight at home vs Dirrell, and maybe Sauerland was given the option of either Kessler or Abraham having home advantage for their fight, and he chose AA?

It's possible that Ward will turn out to be a great boxer, but I think the most likely outcome is a clear Kessler win that no judges could score against him, whereas (if it goes to the cards) I don't think Abraham will clearly dominate Taylor, so maybe they think AA needs the homefield more than Kessler. Not saying they're hoping for a robbery, but in a close fight home advantage can matter a lot.

Also it seemed like DiBella's priority was how much JT was getting paid, rather than where he fought, so perhaps he was a lot more willing to travel than Ward.

Despite the home advantage, I think Ward has a real tough draw. He starts off against the best boxer in the tournament. Also, Ward seems like he's going to be outboxing his opposition rather than knocking them out, and his 3 opponents are the 3 hardest to outbox IMO. Not saying Froch and AA won't win any decisions, but I think their best chance in each fight is to score a KO.