ANDRE WARD SPEAKS IN-DEPTH ON MOVE TO 175, KOVALEV COLLISION COURSE, AND MORE: "ANOTHER CHAPTER IN MY CAREER"
By Ben Thompson | November 03, 2015
BT: November 21, you're stepping back into the ring as the co-feature on the Cotto vs. Canelo pay-per-view card. Tell us about it!
AW: It's a big event. Two great fighter, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez. Great rivalry, Mexico vs. Puerto Rico. I was presented with the opportunity several months ago. I also had the option to have my own date. Just collectively as a team and the way everything fell into place, we decided to be on this card. Some of my critics will say, "Oh, he shouldn't be fighting on a co-feature." I understand that, and initially, that was my thinking as well, but I humbled myself and I said, look, I'm not going to be a guy that's too big to fight on the right co-feature if it's the right situation, and I felt like this was the right situation, so I'm happy to be a part of it.
BT: What made you decide to fight on the pay-per-view card as opposed to fighting on your own date?
AW: It kind of is what it is. At the end of the day, the fans that are in the building and the ones that are going to buy the pay-per-view, they're going to benefit. Years ago, this is what pay-per-view cards would look like. They'd be stacked. Some of the old pay-per-view cards that Don King used to put on, man, he would do a phenomenal job. It wasn't just regular guys on there and then the main event. I mean, it was championship fights all the way from top to bottom. It's just great to be a part of.
With me, I try not to move and make decisions based on necessarily what other people think. There's certain opinions that I do value, my team and people that I know have my best interest at heart, and we sit and we talk because I certainly don't have all the answers, but at the end of the day, my team steps back and they allow me to make the final decision. I just know, and I said this before, that my career is not going to look like any other career. Certain things are going to be done that may not be the norm and that's okay with me.
BT: With the fight being just 3 weeks away, has the search for an opponent been frustrating for you?
AW: It can be frustrating. I haven't gone through anything like that since probably the beginning of my career; '05, '06, '07, somewhere around there. The last 7 or 8 years, I know who I'm going to fight with ample enough time and that's that. I mean, that's the way the business is ran. I don't know all of the details as far as some of the inner workings. I just know that we went through a list of guys. We went through a lot of guys and guys would either turn us down directly or they would price themselves out. I think the perception in the media was maybe we were handpicking soft opponents and the commission turned us down. That wasn't the case. We went through a list of guys, and when I say a list of guys, I mean we were turned down by a list of guys. We had the kid from Australia [Rohan Murdock] who I thought was a really good fighter. The commission, I don't know what happened with that. I've never quite seen anything like that before, but I just tried to stay patient and just keep working. There was kind of an internal deadline and my team should get something finalized soon. I think in the next couple of days we should get something finalized with an opponent. That's something that my first thought is like, okay, well if we don't have an opponent, then we don't have a fight. James Prince and my lawyer, Josh [Dubin], and Virg, my trainer, he said, "Look, just stay patient, keep working, and let us work this out."
BT: If you don't know the opponent, does that change your mentality or the things you work on when it comes to training or does that even matter when you reach this level of your career?
AW: It does matter because we don't just train to train. We train for a specific fighter. We train and prepare ourselves a certain kind of way depending on who the fighter is. Every training camp is not created equal, so it does matter, but it's something I gotta deal with. There seems to always be something in the sport of boxing and you just gotta learn how to deal with these things and take 'em in stride. The only other option is to not fight. I want to fight, so I'm willing to bite down and deal with this little bit of adversity that we're facing and we'll get through it. I don't think it's anything astronomical. It's not comfortable, but I think we'll get through it and at the end of the day, we'll get the results we're trying to get, which is to get my hand raised.
BT: You're officially moving up to light heavyweight now. What was the reason why you made the decision to make that move?
AW: I mean, there's definitely a young crop of guys - guys like Badou Jack, you got the Dirrell brothers, you have George Groves, who just lost, but he's still a player - you have guys like that who are in the division and none of those fights for me would've been easy, but I don't know how easy those fights would've been to actually make and get finalized. So part of it was a lack of opponents, a lack of, I don't want to say competition because there is competition, but a lack of finding guys that I can actually fight. As everybody knows in my career, man, I've not only been willing, but I have fought the best and have been fortunate to beat the best and been fortunate to come out on top. So it's a combination of opponent and just wanting to be great, man. At the end of the day, I want to be great and this is what the greats do. They take on challenges like this whether they have to do it or not. Floyd did it, Bernard did it, Roy did it, and those are my three favorite fighters. All the greats did it, so this is just another chapter in my career. It's a challenge, it won't be easy, but this is what it's all about.
BT: When we've spoken in the past about that, you always said that you weren't going to do it until you were ready to make it a permanent move. Is that still the case? Is this move permanent or is the door still open to you possibly fighting at 168?
AW: I never move back down. That's why I took my time to move up because it wasn't time to move up and I knew that when I made the decision to come up, it has to be final. I can't play with my body like that. I can't take those kind of risks to build my body up and to go in a higher weight class and then strip the weight back off maybe a year from now or something like that. It just wouldn't be a good look. Like I said, the guys that I mentioned and other guys that are coming up, guys like Jesse Hart, it's time for those guys to fight it out at '68 over the next couple of years to see who's going to be the top dog.
BT: Do you plan on packing on any extra muscle at 175 or are you good with maybe coming in smaller than some of these guys?
AW: Nah, I'm not into packing on size. I gotta cut weight to get to '75. I think a lot of people think it's a major build-up situation. There's some things you're going to different. There's some different training methods and whatnot, but I have to cut to get to '75, so it's not like I'm putting on any kind of muscle like when Roy went to heavyweight or something like that. It's not that, so I'm not really interested in size. I want to keep my speed and I want to keep my explosiveness. We'll change some things, but size is not the answer.
BT: The 3-fight deal you signed with HBO, I know you haven't officially spoken too much about it, but reports say that it's supposed to end in a showdown with unified light heavyweight champion Segey Kovalev. Is that officially the goal, to fight Kovalev in that 3rd fight?
AW: Absolutely. I'm not ducking nothing and never have. At the end of the day, there's no way I'ma come to Kovalev's neighborhood at 175 and at some point not knock on his door and want to play. So that's just that! Kovalev is the real deal and I appreciate the way he's gone about it. He's fought the best competition that he can fight. He's not only fought the best competition, but he went to their backyard to do it, so you gotta respect a guy who does that. I don't think he gets a lot of the credit that he deserves. That's the difference between the way guys are brought up in the different eras versus maybe now. These days, guys, they wait until they see a weakness or they want to pick somebody after they got beat or they got hurt or something happened when they saw a flaw. It's like, nah, we're coming up to 175 knowing that Kovalev is the top dog. I respect Kovalev and at some point, we're going to bump heads. I think he's an all-around good fighter. He seems to be a hard hitter, and not only that, but he's skillful, so that won't be an easy fight.
BT: Did you get a chance to see Golovkin's fight with Lemieux and did you hear about the pay-per-view numbers it did?
AW: To be honest with you, I don't really pay attention to guys like Golovkin and other guys. I mean, I really don't. I'm not a fan. I'm not sitting around, biting my nails, waiting for his pay-per-view to come on or nothing like that. It's no disrespect. I have a very linear approach to this game. I don't know how many years I have left in this sport and I'm locked in on this new challenge I got of going up to 175. I'm on a mission and when that mission is over, I'ma be able to hang my gloves up one day and walk away without any regrets with my legacy intact, my finances intact, and my brains intact. At the end of the day, that's all I'm focused on. I put my energy towards Golovkin and his team when they brought my name up and when it seemed like there was some action over there, but once they pretty much tapped out, then I left it alone. I'm not interested in even discussing Golovkin at this point. I wish him nothing but the best, but I really have nothing else to say about him.
BT: Ooowee! We'll just end it with that (laughing)! I know you've been busy shooting movies, doing appearances, and whatnot. It's been a minute since we had you on FightHype, so let the fans know what they can expect on November 21 when Andre Ward officially makes his light heavyweight debut!
AW: I've been absent from social media for a little while too. I've just been in a different place, a good place, just keeping it simple and focusing on what's in front of me, so don't be alarmed if you haven't heard from me on social media or anything like that. I haven't been doing a bunch of interviews. I've just been focused. I've been enjoying my life, I've been enjoying my kids, my wife; I've just been getting my mind and my body right for this next chapter. As always, man, they can expect Andre Ward to be in tip-top shape and to go out there and give it my all. That's all I know how to do. My switch is either on or off, so November 21st, my switch will be on like always.
ANDRE WARD SPEAKS IN-DEPTH ON MOVE TO 175, KOVALEV COLLISION COURSE, AND MORE: "ANOTHER CHAPTER IN MY CAREER" || FIGHTHYPE.COM
The Pinnacle of Perfection is back......:soggang:
#SOGGang
By Ben Thompson | November 03, 2015
BT: November 21, you're stepping back into the ring as the co-feature on the Cotto vs. Canelo pay-per-view card. Tell us about it!
AW: It's a big event. Two great fighter, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez. Great rivalry, Mexico vs. Puerto Rico. I was presented with the opportunity several months ago. I also had the option to have my own date. Just collectively as a team and the way everything fell into place, we decided to be on this card. Some of my critics will say, "Oh, he shouldn't be fighting on a co-feature." I understand that, and initially, that was my thinking as well, but I humbled myself and I said, look, I'm not going to be a guy that's too big to fight on the right co-feature if it's the right situation, and I felt like this was the right situation, so I'm happy to be a part of it.
BT: What made you decide to fight on the pay-per-view card as opposed to fighting on your own date?
AW: It kind of is what it is. At the end of the day, the fans that are in the building and the ones that are going to buy the pay-per-view, they're going to benefit. Years ago, this is what pay-per-view cards would look like. They'd be stacked. Some of the old pay-per-view cards that Don King used to put on, man, he would do a phenomenal job. It wasn't just regular guys on there and then the main event. I mean, it was championship fights all the way from top to bottom. It's just great to be a part of.
With me, I try not to move and make decisions based on necessarily what other people think. There's certain opinions that I do value, my team and people that I know have my best interest at heart, and we sit and we talk because I certainly don't have all the answers, but at the end of the day, my team steps back and they allow me to make the final decision. I just know, and I said this before, that my career is not going to look like any other career. Certain things are going to be done that may not be the norm and that's okay with me.
BT: With the fight being just 3 weeks away, has the search for an opponent been frustrating for you?
AW: It can be frustrating. I haven't gone through anything like that since probably the beginning of my career; '05, '06, '07, somewhere around there. The last 7 or 8 years, I know who I'm going to fight with ample enough time and that's that. I mean, that's the way the business is ran. I don't know all of the details as far as some of the inner workings. I just know that we went through a list of guys. We went through a lot of guys and guys would either turn us down directly or they would price themselves out. I think the perception in the media was maybe we were handpicking soft opponents and the commission turned us down. That wasn't the case. We went through a list of guys, and when I say a list of guys, I mean we were turned down by a list of guys. We had the kid from Australia [Rohan Murdock] who I thought was a really good fighter. The commission, I don't know what happened with that. I've never quite seen anything like that before, but I just tried to stay patient and just keep working. There was kind of an internal deadline and my team should get something finalized soon. I think in the next couple of days we should get something finalized with an opponent. That's something that my first thought is like, okay, well if we don't have an opponent, then we don't have a fight. James Prince and my lawyer, Josh [Dubin], and Virg, my trainer, he said, "Look, just stay patient, keep working, and let us work this out."
BT: If you don't know the opponent, does that change your mentality or the things you work on when it comes to training or does that even matter when you reach this level of your career?
AW: It does matter because we don't just train to train. We train for a specific fighter. We train and prepare ourselves a certain kind of way depending on who the fighter is. Every training camp is not created equal, so it does matter, but it's something I gotta deal with. There seems to always be something in the sport of boxing and you just gotta learn how to deal with these things and take 'em in stride. The only other option is to not fight. I want to fight, so I'm willing to bite down and deal with this little bit of adversity that we're facing and we'll get through it. I don't think it's anything astronomical. It's not comfortable, but I think we'll get through it and at the end of the day, we'll get the results we're trying to get, which is to get my hand raised.
BT: You're officially moving up to light heavyweight now. What was the reason why you made the decision to make that move?
AW: I mean, there's definitely a young crop of guys - guys like Badou Jack, you got the Dirrell brothers, you have George Groves, who just lost, but he's still a player - you have guys like that who are in the division and none of those fights for me would've been easy, but I don't know how easy those fights would've been to actually make and get finalized. So part of it was a lack of opponents, a lack of, I don't want to say competition because there is competition, but a lack of finding guys that I can actually fight. As everybody knows in my career, man, I've not only been willing, but I have fought the best and have been fortunate to beat the best and been fortunate to come out on top. So it's a combination of opponent and just wanting to be great, man. At the end of the day, I want to be great and this is what the greats do. They take on challenges like this whether they have to do it or not. Floyd did it, Bernard did it, Roy did it, and those are my three favorite fighters. All the greats did it, so this is just another chapter in my career. It's a challenge, it won't be easy, but this is what it's all about.
BT: When we've spoken in the past about that, you always said that you weren't going to do it until you were ready to make it a permanent move. Is that still the case? Is this move permanent or is the door still open to you possibly fighting at 168?
AW: I never move back down. That's why I took my time to move up because it wasn't time to move up and I knew that when I made the decision to come up, it has to be final. I can't play with my body like that. I can't take those kind of risks to build my body up and to go in a higher weight class and then strip the weight back off maybe a year from now or something like that. It just wouldn't be a good look. Like I said, the guys that I mentioned and other guys that are coming up, guys like Jesse Hart, it's time for those guys to fight it out at '68 over the next couple of years to see who's going to be the top dog.
BT: Do you plan on packing on any extra muscle at 175 or are you good with maybe coming in smaller than some of these guys?
AW: Nah, I'm not into packing on size. I gotta cut weight to get to '75. I think a lot of people think it's a major build-up situation. There's some things you're going to different. There's some different training methods and whatnot, but I have to cut to get to '75, so it's not like I'm putting on any kind of muscle like when Roy went to heavyweight or something like that. It's not that, so I'm not really interested in size. I want to keep my speed and I want to keep my explosiveness. We'll change some things, but size is not the answer.
BT: The 3-fight deal you signed with HBO, I know you haven't officially spoken too much about it, but reports say that it's supposed to end in a showdown with unified light heavyweight champion Segey Kovalev. Is that officially the goal, to fight Kovalev in that 3rd fight?
AW: Absolutely. I'm not ducking nothing and never have. At the end of the day, there's no way I'ma come to Kovalev's neighborhood at 175 and at some point not knock on his door and want to play. So that's just that! Kovalev is the real deal and I appreciate the way he's gone about it. He's fought the best competition that he can fight. He's not only fought the best competition, but he went to their backyard to do it, so you gotta respect a guy who does that. I don't think he gets a lot of the credit that he deserves. That's the difference between the way guys are brought up in the different eras versus maybe now. These days, guys, they wait until they see a weakness or they want to pick somebody after they got beat or they got hurt or something happened when they saw a flaw. It's like, nah, we're coming up to 175 knowing that Kovalev is the top dog. I respect Kovalev and at some point, we're going to bump heads. I think he's an all-around good fighter. He seems to be a hard hitter, and not only that, but he's skillful, so that won't be an easy fight.
BT: Did you get a chance to see Golovkin's fight with Lemieux and did you hear about the pay-per-view numbers it did?
AW: To be honest with you, I don't really pay attention to guys like Golovkin and other guys. I mean, I really don't. I'm not a fan. I'm not sitting around, biting my nails, waiting for his pay-per-view to come on or nothing like that. It's no disrespect. I have a very linear approach to this game. I don't know how many years I have left in this sport and I'm locked in on this new challenge I got of going up to 175. I'm on a mission and when that mission is over, I'ma be able to hang my gloves up one day and walk away without any regrets with my legacy intact, my finances intact, and my brains intact. At the end of the day, that's all I'm focused on. I put my energy towards Golovkin and his team when they brought my name up and when it seemed like there was some action over there, but once they pretty much tapped out, then I left it alone. I'm not interested in even discussing Golovkin at this point. I wish him nothing but the best, but I really have nothing else to say about him.
BT: Ooowee! We'll just end it with that (laughing)! I know you've been busy shooting movies, doing appearances, and whatnot. It's been a minute since we had you on FightHype, so let the fans know what they can expect on November 21 when Andre Ward officially makes his light heavyweight debut!
AW: I've been absent from social media for a little while too. I've just been in a different place, a good place, just keeping it simple and focusing on what's in front of me, so don't be alarmed if you haven't heard from me on social media or anything like that. I haven't been doing a bunch of interviews. I've just been focused. I've been enjoying my life, I've been enjoying my kids, my wife; I've just been getting my mind and my body right for this next chapter. As always, man, they can expect Andre Ward to be in tip-top shape and to go out there and give it my all. That's all I know how to do. My switch is either on or off, so November 21st, my switch will be on like always.
ANDRE WARD SPEAKS IN-DEPTH ON MOVE TO 175, KOVALEV COLLISION COURSE, AND MORE: "ANOTHER CHAPTER IN MY CAREER" || FIGHTHYPE.COM
The Pinnacle of Perfection is back......:soggang:
#SOGGang
?
now go watch us on a ppv everyone will actually be watching