Andre Ward update

[Daddy T]

he should fight degale

[Pigeons]

no, no he doesn't. he did 5000 when he fought at stubhub and 1.2 viewers. ggg did 10,000 and 1.3 viewers. ward made 2 million dollars. ggg made 1 million. there's no reason to pay this fool more than he's worth. i thought boxing was a business? when did it become free hand-outs to people resting on their laurels?

You make for a great propaganda machine. Ward-Rodriguez was the only televised fight on the card. Golovkin-Rubio had Donaire-Walters, an all-action thriller that was as worthy of being the main event as Golovkin-Rubio was. You should also understand that California has large Filipino and Mexican populations. Donaire is the most popular Filipino fighter after Pacquiao and Rubio is Mexican.

Ward draws huge ratings for HBO. His superfight vs. Chad Dawson was the 7th most watched U.S. cable fight in 2012 (http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/boxing...6022--box.html).

His "tune-up" vs. Edwin Rodriguez was still the 11th most watched U.S. cable fight in 2013 (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/despite...204009683.html).

Inactive, boring, tuneups... it doesn't matter. When Andre Ward fights on HBO, he draws eyeballs.

[daggum]

You make for a great propaganda machine. Ward-Rodriguez was the only televised fight on the card. Golovkin-Rubio had Donaire-Walters, an all-action thriller that was as worthy of being the main event as Golovkin-Rubio was. You should also understand that California has large Filipino and Mexican populations. Donaire is the most popular Filipino fighter after Pacquiao and Rubio is Mexican.

Ward draws huge ratings for HBO. His superfight vs. Chad Dawson was the 7th most watched U.S. cable fight in 2012 (http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/boxing...6022--box.html).

His "tune-up" vs. Edwin Rodriguez was still the 11th most watched U.S. cable fight in 2013 (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/despite...204009683.html).

Inactive, boring, tuneups... it doesn't matter. When Andre Ward fights on HBO, he draws eyeballs.

yes he draws eyeballs and about the same number of eyeballs as ggg and yet he makes twice as much. this is a business remember? why would they pay someone more for doing the same thing? also normally business works on incentives and if you give ward 2 million to fight a bum what is his incentive to fight good fighters going to be? you can already see his entire attitude has changed since getting that 2 million dollars. he used to make around a million a fight against froch and dawson. that one time they overpaid him has completely gone to his head and it was completely wrong by hbo. for sure it was their fault but it would compound the mistake by giving him the same amount again especially for a crap fight.

[Humean]

Inactive, boring, tuneups... it doesn't matter. When Andre Ward fights on HBO, he draws eyeballs.

I think you mean closed eyelids.

[Pigeons]

yes he draws eyeballs and about the same number of eyeballs as ggg and yet he makes twice as much. this is a business remember? why would they pay someone more for doing the same thing? also normally business works on incentives and if you give ward 2 million to fight a bum what is his incentive to fight good fighters going to be? you can already see his entire attitude has changed since getting that 2 million dollars. he used to make around a million a fight against froch and dawson. that one time they overpaid him has completely gone to his head and it was completely wrong by hbo. for sure it was their fault but it would compound the mistake by giving him the same amount again especially for a crap fight.

Why did you ignore the part where Donaire-Walters was on the Golovkin-Rubio undercard? Donaire had the 6th most watched fight in 2012, the 15th and 21st most watched fights in 2013, and the 6th most watched fight in 2014. You don't think if Ward-Rodriguez had Donaire-Walters on their undercard that they would have scored at least 0.1M more viewers? Obviously they would have. They probably would have scored 0.3-0.5M more viewers. And that's Ward-Rodriguez we're talking about.

Second, you have no idea what kind of money Ward is demanding. His old contract with Goosen had a $1.75M minimum, but his contract with Roc Nation has new terms. Maybe he's asking for $1M and HBO is countering with $500K. Do you know specifically what kind of purse Ward is asking for or HBO is offering?

[Cuban Linx]

HBO is being ******. They won't accept anyone but a certain fighter. That is some BS. Let him fight Lucian Bute FFS.

I'd love to see that fight, but I wouldn't consider Bute a "tune up"

[ShoulderRoll]

Ward should definitely fight a tuneup. If HBO won't pay a lot for it then just take less money, or do the fight off the network.

Andre shouldn't get impatient. It's ok of to take a step back so that he can then take two steps forward in the near future.

[Build That Wall]

... Too late now (you should have posted this way back -- i.e. in January 2012...). Ward has to move up at 175 to fight Bute -- who just signed with Al Haymon...

This would have been a tune up at the point he started fighting 12 rounders.

[Build That Wall]

I'd love to see that fight, but I wouldn't consider Bute a "tune up"

Bute is a tune-up. Everyone but GGG is a Tune-up and I want GGG's name to be PPV by the time Ward beats him

[New England]

i generally take threads like these to enrage the andre ward haters.

steve kim's behavior and rhetoric regarding ward is laughable. ward very clearly urinated in his breakfast cereal.