Comments Thread For: Roc Nation: This is Ward's First Step Toward Kovalev

[Eastcoast]

lol. Because in March, Team Golovkin was still acting as if Andre Ward was just a bad dream, like Candyman. If Golovkin hadn't gone on SportsNation, Max Kellerman hadn't put his employ by HBO aside for a moment to be an honest speaker of boxing, and Andre Ward hadn't been featured on that same program within weeks of Golovkin's appearance, Team Golovkin would still be trying to say "Andre who (cold shudder)".

Hilarious to see you hang so tightly to ****ing 15:1 actual title fights; you were probably one of the folks on this forum, spending your every breath, trying to sell ****ing David Lemieux as a real dangerous fight, lol.

Ward-Smith was a fight, after nearly a year and a half out of the ring, where Andre Ward would get the opportunity to knock off any ring rust, against a rugged and quality operator. Ward-Brand is a stay busy fight for Andre Ward, in anticipation of his coming HBO Championship Boxing show in Feb/Mar and the likely Kovalev fight in the Fall.

People call the fights what they are. Why Golovkin fans refuse to do so for their guy, who has been in maybe 3 real fights his entire professional career, is beyond me.

You write all that and completely side-step my question. Ward was free to seek a fight with Golovkin in March and never tried, despite calling Golovkin out on HBO in the previous October. He changed his words from "anyplace, anytime, anywhere" to "I need 3 tuneups".

Ray Leonard was out 3 years and moved from 147 to 160 to face Hagler - but SOG needs to fight complete scrubs to pad his bank account for when backs out of the Kovalev fight. In 2011 Andre was quoted - "Going up to light heavyweight for the right fight -- not to campaign up there, but for the right fight -- is an option." But now he needs to work his way up, uh-huh.

[FrankieClutch]

I seriously cannot wait for this fight!!!!!

[daggum]

ggg fights bums but paul smith was quality! the comedy never stops with ward fans. i guess they have to work with that they got. what would they say if ggg moved up to 168 and fought 3 bums? i'm sure they would be very kind right? oh wait they were calling ggg a ducker when he tried to fight #1 froch in his first fight at 168 but ward needs 3 tune ups! amazingly high standards for some fighters and no standards for others. what a surprise. these are the same "fans" that pretend that ward didn't duck everyone in his division the past 4 years and pretend that ward hasn't been trying to fight bums which he has.

[Scipio2009]

Of course Team GGG would not be happy with 50/50 (esp a year ahead lol), thats a huge concession for the B sider. That's why they asked for a weight concession back. Hell usually the bigger B sider gets to make both.

With how Golovkin's hyped PPV debut (the reason why his camp didn't even take the time to read through the proposed deal) actually ended up doing, this B-side talk is even more ridiculous.

Ward would be by far the best opponent Golovkin would've ever fought, the biggest name that Golovkin has ever fought, has drawn comparable numbers to Golovkin when he was on HBO, has proven to be able to sell tickets in his home market ($700k+ gates for three of his fights at Oracle Arena), and has basically been sponsored by Jordan brand since winning his Olympic gold medal.

You eliminate the "Golovkin can bring HBO" argument, and what's there to have Golovkin dictate anything?

[Eastcoast]

With how Golovkin's hyped PPV debut (the reason why his camp didn't even take the time to read through the proposed deal) actually ended up doing, this B-side talk is even more ridiculous.

Ward would be by far the best opponent Golovkin would've ever fought, the biggest name that Golovkin has ever fought, has drawn comparable numbers to Golovkin when he was on HBO, has proven to be able to sell tickets in his home market ($700k+ gates for three of his fights at Oracle Arena), and has basically been sponsored by Jordan brand since winning his Olympic gold medal.

You eliminate the "Golovkin can bring HBO" argument, and what's there to have Golovkin dictate anything?

The Golovkin/Lemieux gate did more than Ward's three biggest gates combined. Ward proved in his last fight with Smith that even if he gave tickets away he couldn't draw as many people as there were who paid to watch Golovkin/Monroe. The great champion Ward sold fewer tickets in his hometown vs Edwin Rodriguez than the unknown foreigner Golovkin did against Curtis Stevens.

There's a clear reason why Andre Ward needs to be a parasite and have his promoters use Cotto's leverage to get him onto the Alvarez/Cotto undercard.

Date-------------Fight----------------Attendance
6/20/2015----Ward/Smith-------------9,016
11/16/2013---Ward/Rodriguez--------4,158
9/8/2012------Ward/Dawson----------8,919
12/17/2011----Ward/Froch------------5,626
5/14/2011-----Ward/Abraham--------5,311
11/27/2010----Ward/Bika-------------4,100
6/19/2010-----Ward/Green-----------8,797
11/21/2009----Ward/Kessler--------10,277
5/16/2009-----Ward/Miranda---------7,818

10/17/2015----Golovkin/Lemieux-----20,548
5/16/2015-----Golovkin/Monroe-------12,372
10/18/2014----Golovkin/Rubio----------9,323
7/26/2014-----Golovkin/Geale----------8,572
11/2/2013-----Golovkin/Stevens-------4,618

[aboutfkntime]

Back when the '154-168' quote was made, Golovkin was making attempts to fight bigger guys. K2 sent offers to Edwin Rodriguez & Thomas Oosthuizen. Rodriguez rejected the offer and Oosthuizen priced himself out, and then K2 settled on Gabe Rosado due to his three KO wins on NBC. Also at that time HBO asked Golovkin about fighting Ward he said yes, Ward said he was unavailable - this was much discussed this past summer. And also they signed to fight Chavez at 168 and were willing to accept a fight at 168 vs Froch in the UK. So you can hardly say 'never'. Golovkin was going at Froch, which is Ward's golden win.

Since then I agree, Golovkin has little interest in currently fighting Ward. But I also believe the same with Ward. Andre signed with Roc Nation in March, in October prior to that he sent the email to HBO to be read after the Rubio fight that he'd fight Golovkin 'anyplace, anytime, anywhere'. Yet he made no attempt to do so once he was finally free from Goosen. Golovkin had just defeated Murray and literally had no quality options to choose from, but Ward made no attempts to make the fight then. People like you choose to ignore this fact.

I've yet to see Lara make a serious attempt to fight Golovkin, believe me I've been watching because I very much want that fight. It's hard to ignore the politics of Haymon/HBO. Their business agendas are very opposed to one another. Even if both Golovkin/Lara attempt to make the fight, I don't believe Haymon will sacrifice one of his fighters and at the same time boosten the popularity of his enemy-HBO's star fighters. We've seen Haymon kill such fights before with Stevenson/Kovalev and Quillin/Korobov.

My problem is, I am about done with all of this.

I want a resume, with names..... not excuses, from fans.

Fair call, no argument..... but after making such HUGE claims, I see nothing to show for it, for WHATEVER reason.

And Golovkin is a vet now, he has had plenty of time and yet there are a bunch of names he has mentioned but not fought.

Good post, but you must be getting tired of writing that stuff when boxing fans rightly question Golovkins resume/decisions.

[aboutfkntime]

He will fight another 168 pounder in his next fight as well then find a way to excuse himself from the sport indefinitely prior to a Kovalev fight, we all know what the deal is.

You adjust to a higher weight by fighting a lower level guy that participates at that higher weight, then step up the comp the next time out. He's milking Roc Nation and HBO for as long as he possibly can.

I bet you accounts, that Ward fights Kovalev ?

[aboutfkntime]

ggg fights bums but paul smith was quality! the comedy never stops with ward fans. i guess they have to work with that they got. what would they say if ggg moved up to 168 and fought 3 bums? i'm sure they would be very kind right? oh wait they were calling ggg a ducker when he tried to fight #1 froch in his first fight at 168 but ward needs 3 tune ups! amazingly high standards for some fighters and no standards for others. what a surprise. these are the same "fans" that pretend that ward didn't duck everyone in his division the past 4 years and pretend that ward hasn't been trying to fight bums which he has.

Smith was a tuneup.

Golovkins entire career has been a tuneup.

[firstborn]

You write all that and completely side-step my question. Ward was free to seek a fight with Golovkin in March and never tried, despite calling Golovkin out on HBO in the previous October. He changed his words from "anyplace, anytime, anywhere" to "I need 3 tuneups".

Ray Leonard was out 3 years and moved from 147 to 160 to face Hagler - but SOG needs to fight complete scrubs to pad his bank account for when backs out of the Kovalev fight. In 2011 Andre was quoted - "Going up to light heavyweight for the right fight -- not to campaign up there, but for the right fight -- is an option." But now he needs to work his way up, uh-huh.

Great point, Leonard took a risk and it paid off for him.....but I think you're leaving out a couple of facts. One being that Leonard avoided haggler for a while before he actually fought him. Secondly, it's widely known that Leonard only took the Hagler fight when he thought Hagler had lost a step or two.

The truth is that Wards is still rusty, saw it with my own eyes during his last fight. I know it's inconvenient but some people just can't shake off two years of inactivity in one fight.