Andre Ward offers Marco Antonio Periban a HBO-televised fight

[Jubei]

Ward is officially the biggest clown in boxing.

Always cracking me up. This guy is hilarious and still tries to act tough even though its the biggest sissy and fraud in the sport. Amazing.

[firstborn]

But if your alternative is dragging up a SMW no hoper for 300k, why not throw in a little extra for a decent opponent? Fro Ggg it was a truly stay busy fight, in between Murray and Lemieux 8 months apart

I agree. Although boxing is a business and it probably pains him to do so, Ward should spend a little extra to invest in a decent opponent to help him prepare for Kovalev. That being said, it's not my money so I can't really fault him......however Ward shouldn't be surprised by the backlash he receives if he gets a scrub opponent.

[firstborn]

Ward is officially the biggest clown in boxing.

Always cracking me up. This guy is hilarious and still tries to act tough even though its the biggest sissy and fraud in the sport. Amazing.

You're not making sense, Ward is well respected amongst his peers and his toughness and skill set have already been proven. You'd be on to something if you called him a prima donna or bad businessman....anything but a sissy or a fraud.

[JJRod]

Good old Ward. Talks tough about wanting one opponent all the while negotiating with HBO for a weaker opponent.

Hope HBO doesnt actually go through with this garbage fight. Put this garbage on another channel. Once Ward is ready to fight someone with a pulse and not another tune up, put his on HBO

[BattlingNelson]

Surely this is nothing but a bad rumour.

[The Hammer]

Surely this is nothing but a bad rumour.

Article about it here:

http://www.boxingnewsresults.com/2015/12/kovalev/

[Scipio2009]

Thomas Oosthuizen is with Haymon now.

Highest rated light heavyweights Ward can fight are Shabranskyy, Skoglund, Barrera, Chilemba, Karpency, Mekhontsev, Monaghan or Gonzalez.

Shabranskyy and Gonzalez wanted to fight Ward last fall but were turned down.

Gonzalez is coming off of two straight L's, Monaghan is being carefully crafted by Bob Arum, Karpency just got KTFO, and Skoglund is being carefully moved along in Europe.

So you're really down to, according to your own list and at 175, Shabranskyy(Golden Boy's only fighter at 175), Barrera, and Mekhontsev(only 10-0 and carefully guided by Bob Arum)

[The Hammer]

Gonzalez is coming off of two straight L's

As was Paul Smith.

Monaghan is being carefully crafted by Bob Arum, Karpency just got KTFO, and Skoglund is being carefully moved along in Europe.

So you're really down to, according to your own list and at 175, Shabranskyy(Golden Boy's only fighter at 175), Barrera, and Mekhontsev(only 10-0 and carefully guided by Bob Arum)

But it's irrelevant, because Ward prefers to have boxers from smaller weight divisions move up to fight him.

Karpency being KOed actually means Ward is more likely to fight him. Paul Smith was coming off two losses.

But I think he'll take an even softer route, and have a middleweight or super middleweight journeyman like Periban move up for him.

[Scipio2009]

Here take the same risks that I'm gonna take, even though you have far more pull at 175 than I do, but do it for 15% of what I'm going to make and in my backyard.

That honestly sound like a "fair" deal to anyone here?

What is the option if Barrera walks away from "15% of what I'm going to make"?

Kovalev is fighting Jean Pascal in January, its starting to look like there may end up being a deal in play for Kovalev-Stevenson for April/May {Duva/Michel go over the numbers together, split the fight 50/50 based on what they both believe that the fight would've gotten on the open market, and that split is what gets paid to Stevenson for going to HBO for the fight, with Kovalev getting the balance of the tv money; everything else gets split 50/50}, and the Ward fight is looming for the fall.

Duva's not going to go to the IBF to speed anything up or get her own fighter stripped of a title, and it's not like Barrera is positioned to force anything that his own promoter isn't willing to do.

Barrera is basically in line to get his mandatory shot come December 2016/January 2017.

What is Barrera going to do while he waits for his shot, since $300k isn't enough for him to fight for?

[Scipio2009]

Barrera has a far better resume at 175 than Ward.

Ward just has ONE light heavyweight win, over a bloated super middleweight Paul Smith, who was coming off two losses and appeared to not even train for the fight.

Barrera is a bigger draw in Florida than Ward is in California, because his style is more fan-friendly (Ward has an ugly style, he just grapples, clamps his opponents arms, and head butts).

Ward had to give away ringside tickets for his fight with Smith!!!

Andre Ward has put at least 10k people into Oracle Arena on at least three occasions (vs. Kessler, vs. Dawson, and vs. Smith).

How many people has Sullivan Barrera ever drawn to a venue, anywhere in the state of Florida?