Andre Ward fighting June 20 on BET(?)

[ReggieDiggs]

Looks like Andre is fighting on June 20. Apparently HBO won't be involved & allegedly BET will be.

Supposedly Roc Nation has taken to Haymon strategies & will be doing a time buy with BET.

No opponent yet. Not a whole lot out there thats interesting to begin with.

[zorndeslammes]

Posted about this yesterday. Paul Smith and Marco Antonio Periban are the guys being talked about as potential challengers. Total joke.

[Evander]

It's about time.
If Periban and Smith are the considered opponents it looks like safety first Ward.

[hurricanemitch14]

Smith would be a good warm up fight. Technically split a pair with AA.

[Fatsam]

Paul smith as an Andre ward opponent ?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

This is surely a joke

[digzee]

Smith would be a good warm up fight. Technically split a pair with AA.

No, he lost both fights (clearly) against the weakest champion of the division. Ward going after 2 guys DeGale has already knocked out, with his elite skills he doesn't need a warm up.

[ReggieDiggs]

For the bigger critics or anyone who's willing to answer in this thread, who's the top 4-5 acceptable opponents at 168 besides guys he's beaten already or aren't booked?

Biggest problem for Andre is there isn't a lot of guys that are interesting for him even with the long ass layoff. I'd go with a George Groves or a undefeated fringe contender/prospect kinda guy I think if I was in Andre's shoes. I can understand the ring rust concerns, but gotta fight someone who's at least mildly compelling & undefeated guys are usually overly hyped.

[Fatsam]

I think he should try to make another fight with froch, that or look at other weight divisions. He really has nothing to prove at this weight.

[ReggieDiggs]

I think he should try to make another fight with froch, that or look at other weight divisions. He really has nothing to prove at this weight.

Carl's injured iirc so they can't fight him now. It sounds like he's a guy thats on the table in the future though.

Personally I don't see anything going any differently there & I'd rather see Carl fight Julio or some other big money fun fight at his age. I don't see Andre vs Carl II as much fun either.

[Fatsam]

Right, tbh the division sucks for ward, his biggest fight is against s guy he easily beat alleady, he either makes easy defences for another 5 years or he takes on ggg or kovalev, thosr are big challenges.

[digzee]

I think I am right in saying that Ward said he will move up to LHW when his body grows into the weight, well he's 6 foot (the same as Kovalev and taller then both Stevenson and Beterbiev) and at 31 he's not gonna naturally grow any bigger, every boxer at his age uses a strength and conditioning coach and 1 or 2 catch weight fights to go to another division. He's cleaned out 168 so why not move up? Especially when nobody is interested in fighting you and the division above you is hot right now.

[ikorolev]

Looking at Beterbiev, Ward should better stay at 168. He is just not strong enough to clinch Artur for 12 rounds.

[crusader]

Smith would be a good warm up fight. Technically split a pair with AA.

Technically he lost both fights and in my view he deserved to....the second fight was very clear for AA as well.

[expe]

For the bigger critics or anyone who's willing to answer in this thread, who's the top 4-5 acceptable opponents at 168 besides guys he's beaten already or aren't booked?

Biggest problem for Andre is there isn't a lot of guys that are interesting for him even with the long ass layoff. I'd go with a George Groves or a undefeated fringe contender/prospect kinda guy I think if I was in Andre's shoes. I can understand the ring rust concerns, but gotta fight someone who's at least mildly compelling & undefeated guys are usually overly hyped.

Just not Paul fornicating Smith.

[zorndeslammes]

For the bigger critics or anyone who's willing to answer in this thread, who's the top 4-5 acceptable opponents at 168 besides guys he's beaten already or aren't booked?

George Groves
Robert Stieglitz
Felix Sturm
James DeGale
Fedor Chudinov

I'm going to spot you Andre Dirrell here because, as I've said before, Andre Ward will never fight Andre Dirrell. It will not happen. Any of those 5 men are a significant upgrade over Paul Smith or Marco Antonio Periban.

Do I understand the business rationale in bringing in the lowest cost rated guy for Ward to fight in an event where RocNation is going to probably lose a lot of money? Yes. Does that mean I have to like it? No. They shoulder some responsibility here. So does Andre for making these demands. After seeing the judgements from the lawsuits and how Goosen had him major fights for good money (like a Kessler rematch) and he turned them down because he thought he deserved an easy touch for (IIRC) his minimum pay of 1.75 million, leading to his long layoff....screw him.

[hurricanemitch14]

I guess u missed the 200 post about Ward taking a warm up.

[Baby Face Finster]

Looking at Beterbiev, Ward should better stay at 168. He is just not strong enough to clinch Artur for 12 rounds.

He would beat both Ward and Kovalev. Neither guy has the chin to stay in there with Artur.

[zorndeslammes]

I guess u missed the 200 post about Ward taking a warm up.

Ward needs a warm up because he took over a year off to fight his promoter (and lose, repeatedly, in court) for not being able to obtain a tuneup for him that a network would agree to. Ward is either delusional about his value or J.Prince has a gun to his head. Either way, I won't seriously rate him again until he shows initiative to take a fight against a top 20 foe.

[klitoris]

It doesn't matter who Ward fights in his first fight back. He just needs to get back on the radar. However once he beats an easy opponent on June 20th, I want him to fight at least 2 more times after that. He needs to fight at least 3 times this year, and then I would expect a mid 2016 PPV with GGG.

[ikorolev]

Looking at Beterbiev, Ward should better stay at 168. He is just not strong enough to clinch Artur for 12 rounds.

He would beat both Ward and Kovalev. Neither guy has the chin to stay in there with Artur.

Nobody really checked Artur's chin either ...

[Baby Face Finster]

Looking at Beterbiev, Ward should better stay at 168. He is just not strong enough to clinch Artur for 12 rounds.

He would beat both Ward and Kovalev. Neither guy has the chin to stay in there with Artur.

Nobody really checked Artur's chin either ...

Right, because no one has hit him in any of his fights with punches.

Those two are going to have to take some punches to land their own and I don't see their chin's holding up. I can't wait to say I told you so.

[crusader]

Which notable punchers has he fought and what type of shots did they land? Hard to say that he's proven that he has a good chin given who has hit him and the fact that he was down two fights ago.

[Baby Face Finster]

Which notable punchers has he fought and what type of shots did they land? Hard to say that he's proven that he has a good chin given who has hit him and the fact that he was down two fights ago.

You don't think Tavoris Cloud hits hard? I know he came into the fight with a few losses but the way Beterbiev destroyed him was impressive.

[ikorolev]

He would beat both Ward and Kovalev. Neither guy has the chin to stay in there with Artur.

Nobody really checked Artur's chin either ...

Right, because no one has hit him in any of his fights with punches.

Those two are going to have to take some punches to land their own and I don't see their chin's holding up. I can't wait to say I told you so.

I am pretty sure that Ward could go 3-4 rounds without getting tagged by Beterbiev. Andre just doesn't have sufficient pop himself and will not be able to keep Artur off him for 12 rounds.

Speaking about Kovalev, he is also more technical than Beterbiev, so he can land a few clean shots before getting tagged by Artur. Here is where unknown quality of Beterbiev's chin would matter. I suspect that he has a good one though.

[crusader]

Cloud, who was clearly past it in my view, was an okay puncher but not in Kovalev or Stevenson's league power-wise and I don't think he landed much of note. He was also tailor-made for Beterbiev as he stands straight in front of opponents and slugs with them.