Anyone else have a feeling Andre Ward is going to sign with Top Rank?

[Redd Foxx]

money talks and he wants that early retirement money.

"Early retirement"? Do you watch boxing? Since when did being way past prime and accumulating losses become an appropriate retirement?

[McNulty]

I think that would be a great move by Ward. Ward is doing what Jones did and he's missing big opportunities as a result. Learn from history!

[daggum]

I think that would be a great move by Ward. Ward is doing what Jones did and he's missing big opportunities as a result. Learn from history!

what opportunities is he missing? hes a guy who cant draw very well and just got 12 mllion dollars for2 financial bombs. why would anyone want that burden??? hes made it clear he wont fight unless its for insane money. he was willing to retire unless kovalev gave him literally all the designated purse for the fight. hes so far delusional that hes gone man hes gone. let him go hes not coming back to reality. also after the kovavlev fights which promoter is going to want to fight under wards fixed system(the only way hes wiling to fight)? unless its an in house fight thats the only way. too much drama for zero reward. makes no sense.

[hectari]

It would be smart for Ward to sign with Top Rank, it helps with his future as a fight manager.

Also if Ward leaves HBO, hbo has nobody left just Canelo and GGG. Loma and Crawford are already gone to ESPN, Kitschko retired. Floyd left long ago, and HBO dissed Manny yet wanted to televise his fight vs Horn but Arum told them to F off, HBO is in shambles.

HBO will then beg Haymon back to work with him, out of desperation or the boxing era is over for HBO and they will scrap their boxing broadcast for good which will be sad but it happens.

[McNulty]

what opportunities is he missing? hes a guy who cant draw very well and just got 12 mllion dollars for2 financial bombs. why would anyone want that burden??? hes made it clear he wont fight unless its for insane money. he was willing to retire unless kovalev gave him literally all the designated purse for the fight. hes so far delusional that hes gone man hes gone. let him go hes not coming back to reality. also after the kovavlev fights which promoter is going to want to fight under wards fixed system(the only way hes wiling to fight)? unless its an in house fight thats the only way. too much drama for zero reward. makes no sense.

Arum is an evil genius. Never under-estimate his power.

[Pigeons]

GBP is about to buy HBO like they bought the RING. Besides GBP all HBO has is K2 (Golovkin, Gonzalez), Main Events (Kovalev), and RNS (Ward).

If RNS implodes and Ward joins TR, all HBO has left is GBP, Golovkin, Gonzalez, and Kovalev. HBO Boxing is on the verge of death.

[Scipio2009]

There's been lots of rumours going around that Top Rank are close to signing him, which is why he's the co-main on one of their big cards.

Nice try? I'm not sure what you think I was 'trying'. People on here are weird AF man...

Top Rank won a purse bid, full stop. The ESPN card in question is slated to be on a Tuesday I think, from a 3500-seat venue, so miss me with that "big cards" nonsense.

Haymon does near no business with Top Rank, Top Rank has no presence in Canada, and their TV platform, depending on what the coming Crawford numbers look like, had about the reach of a so-so HBO card without an established name fighting.

Top Rank has one fighter at 175lbs, and that's Gvozdyk.

[Scipio2009]

Ward used to be a HBO commentator... TR moved to ESPN and Ward also... But he doesn't have to sign with TR, though...

ESPN is bringing him in for the Crawford card (TR Boxing on ESPN) and the coming hard sell for Mayweather-McGregor (which Top Rank has absolutely nothing to do with and a fight that Arum has been openly ****ting on).

[daggum]

Arum is an evil genius. Never under-estimate his power.

if arum can somehow promote ward without losing money then he is the greatest promoter of all time. i dont think it can be done given wards demadns but lets see him try

[Scipio2009]

HBO is likely alright with that.

It would be smart for Ward to sign with Top Rank, it helps with his future as a fight manager.

Also if Ward leaves HBO, hbo has nobody left just Canelo and GGG. Loma and Crawford are already gone to ESPN, Kitschko retired. Floyd left long ago, and HBO dissed Manny yet wanted to televise his fight vs Horn but Arum told them to F off, HBO is in shambles.

HBO will then beg Haymon back to work with him, out of desperation or the boxing era is over for HBO and they will scrap their boxing broadcast for good which will be sad but it happens.

With the limited commitment to boxing still diminishing every year, do they really need a heaping pile of stars?

Saul Alvarez is all of 27 years old; unless film/TV calls for him or simply gets tired of boxing, he's still got another 10 PPV fights left in him before he turns 31. To that, you can add maybe one PPV fight for Golovkin after Alvarez.

With Alvarez undergirding the boxing budget, HBO can take their piece off of Alvarez's PPVs and whatever money they still want to spend on boxing, and pair The Canelo Alvarez Show with 8-10 BAD type shows and be done with it.

Feature the little guys, Golden Boy's fighters in the cusp of world level, and Kovalev/Golovkin in mismatch fights for as long as they are viable, and call it a day.