Help Me Understand This Ward HBO DEAL. WAS HE STRONG ARMED?

[Rudiamonds]

Hbo made him move up to not make the fight btw him and ggg a reality

[j0zef]

I don't think so. Ward's options at 168 are all on PBC. At the time, Abraham was #1 in the division and he already beat him. So his options were either hang out at 168 and wait for Zurdo and GGG or move up to 175 and build that legacy.

This.

Plus, he wanted to get paid for his fights - he's still getting $2M each fight. Hard to justify paying Ward that money without any decent opponents available.

[SilverMiles]

HBO knew Ward couldn't make 168lbs so they told him to stop wasting their time, make the move to 175 and agree to fight Kovalev. HBO probably wouldn't enforced him to sign a contract so soon if Ward wasn't known for breaking agreements.

HBO wasn't about to go back and forth with Ward and allow him to drag up SMW's to 175lbs. They weren't going to pay 2 million guarantee and not get atleast 1 competive fight out of him.

[Nod]

Yeah to get the money he wanted on HBO it was to have something big at the end of it. The first offer was to 3g and they didn't want it.

[SUBZER0ED]

LOL @ you guys suggesting that HBO is protecting Golovkin from Ward. Andre has said himself that he dares to be great & that is why he moved up to LHW. And let's not forget, he fought @ LHW as an amateur. In 2014, his trainer Virgil Hunter even said he wouldn't put Ward in a position to fight above his natural weight. His body would have to grow into it first. He knows this is true for GGG too, but Loeffler contradicted himself in saying he'd fight anyone from 160-168, but wanted a CW for Ward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzPeTxiiqUo

[.!WAR MIKEY!.]

I don't think so. Ward's options at 168 are all on PBC. At the time, Abraham was #1 in the division and he already beat him. So his options were either hang out at 168 and wait for Zurdo and GGG or move up to 175 and build that legacy.

fair points, never looked at it this way. and like I say only a hoe ass mother****er will wait around for antoher man, you gotta make moves and do what you gotta do.

[Larry the boss]

Ward has always fought the top fighters, why would he need to be strong armed?

[TheCell8]

No one strong armed him... HBO just wasn't going to let him sit around and fight low level opposition once a year, while paying him $2.5M, and wait for GGG to move up.

They basically told him, do you want to fight or not?

[Citizen Koba]

I wonder if the reason he was trying to get GGG to agree to an eventual fight was to have him be a part of the contract deal, and when that didn't pan out he turned to Kovalev.

That's about it I think. HBO got burned with Ward before and they weren't gonna sign him again without a promise of a big fight - which basically meant GGG or Kovalev. With GGG prefering the Canelo / unification path basically it had to be Kovalev and 175 or no HBO contract.

HBO protecting Golovkin? Not particularly - simply trying to maximise profits. It's a business. That's what they do.

[Nod]

LOL @ you guys suggesting that HBO is protecting Golovkin from Ward. Andre has said himself that he dares to be great & that is why he moved up to LHW. And let's not forget, he fought @ LHW as an amateur. In 2014, his trainer Virgil Hunter even said he wouldn't put Ward in a position to fight above his natural weight. His body would have to grow into it first. He knows this is true for GGG too, but Loeffler contradicted himself in saying he'd fight anyone from 160-168, but wanted a CW for Ward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzPeTxiiqUo

Let us not forget. LOL

Some of you claim to follow boxing but don't know **** about it.

Let us not forget that there is no super middleweight limit in the amateurs. 165 is the middleweight limit and above that is light heavy. But let us not forget.