Why is everyone ducking Ward?

[MulaKO]

Ward does not fear anyone ?
I beg to differ, many fights over the years and Ward being this super fighter never accepted for whatever reason.
I like Ward but too many ifs and buts

[IMDAZED]

Ward does not fear anyone ?
I beg to differ, many fights over the years and Ward being this super fighter never accepted for whatever reason.
I like Ward but too many ifs and buts

Kovalev, Froch, Kessler, Dawson, Barrera, etc etc. Sheesh, I wish every 168-175 had ifs and buts like that.

[MulaKO]

Froch,Kessler and big bad Kovalev all ducked fights or refused to put it mildly to fight Adonis
Froch and Kessler refused and Kovi pulled out of a purse bid
Barrera was scheduled to fight Adonis but couldn't get a visa into Canada or something to those whereabouts

[Scipio2009]

The interviews I've seen Ward talk about Haymon he seems patronizing to the reality of those fights being made, with a grin. Hunter even said Ward could come down to 168 without Ward's acknowledgement...

Andre Ward knows what it is; Al Haymon and James Prince will have to sit down and get the right deal done for the fight. Ward having an HBO deal before, and seeing how things fell apart on the last shot at a big fight (Ward, fighting the HBO fighter, wasn't going to just mess up his business either), what was said was said.

Andre Ward will fight wherever he and his camp find the right deal, and that's about it, imo.

[Fists_of_Fury]

Ward brings no entertainment or dollar value. All he brings is belts he won by low blow and an overrated skillset. He smothers, mauls, headbutts, low blows, hugs, and stinks up the place... p4p #1 doe. People have legit reasons to not want to fight him.

[Scipio2009]

Frankly there aren't a lot of good money options for Ward. Ward is probably never going to have a pay day like he did against Kovalev, possibly with Stevenson but I think Stevenson will want better terms than what K got. Maybe I'm wrong, but we'll see. Unless he goes for Joshua which is highly unlikely.

Andre Ward was able to draw $3.5m at the gate for the first Kovalev fight (the number for the rematch was only near $2.5m, but that likely had more to do with the tickets being mispriced).

Andre Ward, on his name alone, is pretty darn close to being on the money, tbh (especially after each PPV was able to clean up more than $5m, before you count any of the other money).

Ward-Stevenson will likely deliver a bigger payday than either of the Kovalev fights, but after that, you'd be looking at an undisputed light heavyweight champion who also happens to be the #1 fighter in the sport. The pay will come down after, but nothing disastrous ($2m guaranteed is nothing to sneeze at).

vs Badou Jack in NYC (Barclays Center, unless MGM Resorts goes into the pocket for the fight), vs Beterbiev at Oracle, Tony Bellew in NYC/Las Vegas (unless Eddie Hearn puts up a monster offer to stage the fight at the O2 Arena in London). Any other fight at this point (James Degale moving up may be big enough to entice Las Vegas or Barclays to put up money), you stage at Ward's 20k-seat arena in Oakland.

Ward's likely not going to get to Floyd money, but he's got the makings of a guy who could settle into being a 300k-400k PPV buys fighter in short order.

[Kid Blackie]

Ward does not fear anyone ?
I beg to differ, many fights over the years and Ward being this super fighter never accepted for whatever reason.
I like Ward but too many ifs and buts

"There have been naysayers my whole career. If I shut him down over 12 rounds there would be naysayers. They finally got a fight that was close and they thought this could be the one to get him and it didn’t. So that made them mad. When I make a certain amount of money they get mad at that. I’ve stopped trying to prove naysayers wrong years ago. I’m immune to it. To be honest with you, I don’t even use that as motivation anymore. That’s not even part of the equation anymore because you’re not going to change that. It’s one thing for someone to critique you. But you’ve got chronic haters, chronic naysayers whose job in the boxing game is to do this year round. And I’m not interested in changing their mind." - Andre "The Boogeyman" Ward

[Diego Rodriguez]

Andre Ward was able to draw $3.5m at the gate for the first Kovalev fight (the number for the rematch was only near $2.5m, but that likely had more to do with the tickets being mispriced).

Andre Ward, on his name alone, is pretty darn close to being on the money, tbh (especially after each PPV was able to clean up more than $5m, before you count any of the other money).

Ward-Stevenson will likely deliver a bigger payday than either of the Kovalev fights, but after that, you'd be looking at an undisputed light heavyweight champion who also happens to be the #1 fighter in the sport. The pay will come down after, but nothing disastrous ($2m guaranteed is nothing to sneeze at).

vs Badou Jack in NYC (Barclays Center, unless MGM Resorts goes into the pocket for the fight), vs Beterbiev at Oracle, Tony Bellew in NYC/Las Vegas (unless Eddie Hearn puts up a monster offer to stage the fight at the O2 Arena in London). Any other fight at this point (James Degale moving up may be big enough to entice Las Vegas or Barclays to put up money), you stage at Ward's 20k-seat arena in Oakland.

Ward's likely not going to get to Floyd money, but he's got the makings of a guy who could settle into being a 300k-400k PPV buys fighter in short order.

I wish I had something to wager you with (even a friendly one) but Andre Ward is never going to do 300K PPV fighter in NA I'd bet. Now maybe against Joshua but he isn't even a big enough name here. I just don't see it. He had a compelling rematch and did less buys than the first fight. There were empty seats and they gave tickets away.

[////]

Kovalev fought him twice with two controversial outcomes. There was no ducking though. Right after he moved up the fight was negotiated.

Stevenson ducks literally everyone.

He's always been way too big for Golovkin.

I do think given his history of fouling and fishiness + being a ratings dud compared to how highly he ranks, he is a high risk/low reward opponent so most guys aren't going out of their way to get at him.

[Scipio2009]

I wish I had something to wager you with (even a friendly one) but Andre Ward is never going to do 300K PPV fighter in NA I'd bet. Now maybe against Joshua but he isn't even a big enough name here. I just don't see it. He had a compelling rematch and did less buys than the first fight. There were empty seats and they gave tickets away.

The rematch was lined up against the Mayweather-McGregor announcement, which sapped all the attention up during the fight week hard sell, and it's not like a ticket for Ward-Kovalev 2 was going for cheap either.

All I'm saying is don't say I didn't try to hip you to some knowledge.