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By Cliff Rold - Before a largely self-imposed hiatus of close to two years, lineal Super Middleweight champion Andre Ward was regarded as no worse than the second best prizefighter in boxing. He’s probably still as good as he ever was. He’s only 31 years old, fights in a relatively safe style, and has one of the highest boxing IQ’s in the game. A protracted contractual battle between Ward and the late Dan Goosen kept Ward out of the ring since November 2013.
The layoff is over and its ending is overdue. After establishing himself in Showtime’s Super Six tournament with successive victories over Mikkel Kessler, Alan Green, Sakio Bika, Arthur Abraham, and Carl Froch from 2009-11, Ward made the move to HBO for a Super Middleweight title defense against then-reigning Light Heavyweight champion Chad Dawson in September 2012.
His television number indicated a growing television audience. His fight with Dawson drew approximately 1.3 million viewers, with his next fight against Rodriguez ticking in just a tad lower at 1.2. While often treated as just okay, they are numbers on par with the best of Middleweight Gennady Golovkin and Light Heavyweight Sergey Kovalev.
Some reports in media would have one thinking otherwise. It’s not true. Golovkin might sell more tickets, but his television ratings haven’t dwarfed Ward. Kovalev hasn’t sold tickets the way Ward did in Oakland for Kessler or Dawson and his ratings aren’t more impressive. Whether Ward’s layoff squandered his momentum won’t be known until he returns to a platform like HBO again. [Click Here To Read More]
The layoff is over and its ending is overdue. After establishing himself in Showtime’s Super Six tournament with successive victories over Mikkel Kessler, Alan Green, Sakio Bika, Arthur Abraham, and Carl Froch from 2009-11, Ward made the move to HBO for a Super Middleweight title defense against then-reigning Light Heavyweight champion Chad Dawson in September 2012.
His television number indicated a growing television audience. His fight with Dawson drew approximately 1.3 million viewers, with his next fight against Rodriguez ticking in just a tad lower at 1.2. While often treated as just okay, they are numbers on par with the best of Middleweight Gennady Golovkin and Light Heavyweight Sergey Kovalev.
Some reports in media would have one thinking otherwise. It’s not true. Golovkin might sell more tickets, but his television ratings haven’t dwarfed Ward. Kovalev hasn’t sold tickets the way Ward did in Oakland for Kessler or Dawson and his ratings aren’t more impressive. Whether Ward’s layoff squandered his momentum won’t be known until he returns to a platform like HBO again. [Click Here To Read More]
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