The Boxing Tribune

Boxing's Independent Media

  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Best Of
  • Staff
  • Advertise With Us
  • Write for Us

Before Bailing Out, Andre Ward Needs To Address Some Unfinished Business

February 13, 2017 by Danny Howard 2 Comments

64
SHARES
ShareTweet

I’m a fan of Andre Ward and I’m not afraid to say it, but at the same time, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Light Heavyweight champion over the course of the last four years.
While Ward is one of the best fighters in the world and is almost prodigious with his work inside the ring, he’s irritating to the point of no return outside of it. For every dominant performance and stunning win, there is an unnecessary drama and hoopla that overshadows it.

I was thrilled when he won the Super Six tournament and thought he deserved the slight nod over Sergey Kovalev last year, but I wasn’t so quick to sing his praises when he was trying to breach his contract with Dan Goossen many times over and currently not a fan of his inaction since the Kovalev fight.

When news broke last week that Ward was going to play a part in managing Olympian Shakur Stevenson and his most recent work even near a boxing ring was calling Chris Eubanks Jr’s most recent fight, it is starting to look like Ward is finding a way to make himself comfortable outside of the ring.

Couple that with his recent rhetoric about potentially retiring instead of giving Kovalev a deserved rematch indicates that Ward might be serious about calling it a career, and that is unacceptable to the fans who stuck by him and the sport in general.

Usually when a fighter implements a retirement angle, it is basically a negotiation tool to indicate to his opponent or even his own boss that he wants to sweeten the pot just a bit before he takes another step. Ward mentioned many times after the Kovalev fight that he wanted more favorable terms for a rematch—just right around the time he started mentioning retirement.

Since then, rematch talks have been null and Ward’s only talk about actually fighting have comprised of chiding Kovalev’s antics as being a sore loser and downplaying a potential fight with Eubanks after commentating at ringside. Though I still believe Ward is going to fight Kovalev again, it is clear he’s waiting for terms to better reflect what he wants, be it a bigger split of the purse or an interim fight before his contractually obligated rematch.

He better, because while Ward has done enough in his career at this point to be considered one of the greats of this era and has probably earned a spot in the Hall of Fame should he retire, this isn’t the time to walk away.

Of course, it’s really all up to him and it always has been. Ward wasted the prime of his career futilely trying to break his contract with Goossen for the right to dictate his career on his terms, and if he feels that he’s accomplished everything he’s needed to do in the sport, then God bless him and I wish him well. Very few fighters can say they ended things on their terms and walked away with a clear head on their shoulders and money in the bank, and Ward is not wanting to have the usual “beaten and broke” stereotypical ending to his career.

Chances are, Ward may find himself a very capable manager with Stevenson and get a stable of fighters under his guidance even more so affirming his intentions to step away from the ring. If that’s the case, then so be it, I can’t blame him for moving on to better things.

Then again, there is a sense of finality in one (or two) more bouts with Kovalev to legitimize a victory not many people believe he earned. Should he do it, then boxing as a whole would be fine to let him go with no faults, and the sport wouldn’t be left with a “what if” fight that has absolutely no reason to fall apart now.

Danny Howard on EmailDanny Howard on FacebookDanny Howard on LinkedinDanny Howard on Twitter
Danny Howard
Danny Howard
Managing Editor at The Boxing Tribune
Danny Howard has been all over the place, writing for FightHype, the Yahoo Contributor Network and the Examiner. His works are also featured as part of the team at The Fight City. He also became a legend in his own mind by writing “And Stay Down! Boxing’s Worst Comebacks.” Howard can be found on Facebook and Twitter and can be reached by email at daniel.howard6@att.net

Filed Under: Featured, Opinion Tagged With: Andre Ward, boxing, Sergey Kovalev, Shakur Stevenson

Trackbacks

  1. How Light Heavyweight Became a Mess (And Why It Will Stay That Way) | The Boxing Tribune says:
    February 22, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    […] already aired my grievances with Ward (which you can read in detail here), but it does go to show that Ward’s current hostage situation with his titles and the will […]

    Reply
  2. Say Hello to the Bad Guy | The Boxing Tribune says:
    May 11, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    […] the dust stewing in their own anger, and that’s almost exactly what he did with a series of nonsensical retirement talk at the beginning of the […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Keep Independent Boxing Media Alive

Best of The Boxing Tribune

Edwin Valero’s Last 24 Hours: In His Own Words.

Edwin Valero’s Last 24 Hours: In His Own Words.

Boxing is my Passion (Second Version)

Boxing is my Passion (Second Version)

Revisiting The Ring Magazine Scandal

Revisiting The Ring Magazine Scandal

Boxing’s Dirty Little Secret

Boxing’s Dirty Little Secret

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali

More of The Boxing Tribune's Best

Follow Us

Facebooktwitteryoutube

Alexa Traffic Rank

Sportsbook odds for all Boxing matches

Search

Recent

  • Deus Ex Machina: AI Boxing Writer Offers Help to Sucky Human Boxing Writers
  • The Truth About “Boo Boo” Andrade
  • Benavidez and Andrade Talk of War, Assure Victory en Route to Canelo Fight
  • Ryan Garcia and Shakur Stevenson Go To War
  • Goodnight World: A Shakur Stevenson Bedtime Story