Top light heavyweight fighters Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev are looking at interim fights before facing each other in the ring in this year’s most anticipated light heavyweight fight.
Ward who is the former lineal, The Ring magazine, WBA (Super), and WBC super middleweight champion wants an interim fight before the Kovalev showdown because of his long layoff from the sport due to injury aside from the long-running feud with his former promoter. While Ward has more justifiable reasons to do another low-key fight, Kovalev will be doing it possibly to create more excitement to their most anticipated fight which could happen later this year. Ward is fresh off a unanimous decision win over Sullivan Barrera last weekend at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California while Kovalev is coming off a technical decision win over Jean Pascal last January at the Centre Bell, Montreal, Quebec, Canada to retain his WBA (Super), IBF and WBO light heavyweight titles. Both fighters are unbeaten in their receptive careers with Kovalev doing 29 wins and a draw since turning pro in 2000 while Ward has 29 wins to his credit. Despite his win over Barrera last Saturday, Ward believes he needs to do a quick return before the Kovalev fight. “I think that is accurate. I think it would be a lot smoother offensively and defensively. I think certain things I wanted to do today that maybe I didn’t do – we would pull them off – like making a guy miss and counter that or maybe finish a guy when we get him hurt like we did today,” Ward told BoxingScene.com. Ward’s sudden decision to move up to the light heavyweight limit of 175 pounds caught boxing fans by surprise as he has been doing quite well in the 168-pound limit. Read more. It turned out that he was angling a lucrative fight against Kovalev, who dominates the light heavyweight division. With his successful debut in the 175 pounds limit, Ward is almost ready for the most anticipated light heavyweight showdown against Kovalev.
