As shameful as it is that the two best light heavyweights in the world are still no closer to facing each other, no weight class should be tied down by the lack of one fight being made, at least when there are other options available. There aren?t always.
Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev remain apart, at least until the proper combination of fate and fortune finally bring them together. That combination will be divined someday through algebra or alchemy. But the fighters themselves do not wait for math and magic to produce the solution. Their careers continue, not quite parallel but still yet to intersect. They fight. They fight the temptation to compromise on their stubborn stands. And so they fight other opposition in the interim.
For Stevenson, that meant one good fight with Andrzej Fonfara followed by three opponents who never had a chance to win. Even his defense this past July against Thomas Williams Jr. was one in which the challenger only had a puncher?s chance, though for a time it seemed as if that dismissive caveat would turn into an accurate prediction, at least until Stevenson landed a shot that ended Williams? shot.
For Kovalev, there have been easy nights to pass the time in-between the harder options that easily pass muster. Each year, there has been at one opponent who is the best available. Given the politics of the business of the sport, the pool of what?s available is sometimes quite shallow.
Yet Kovalev faced Bernard Hopkins in late 2014, at the time one of the three best 175-pound fighters in the world.
Last year, Kovalev took on Jean Pascal, who was thought to have something left to offer until Kovalev took it out of him.
Later this year, Kovalev will face Andre Ward.
It says a lot about the lack of depth when the toughest challenge Kovalev will have faced so far at light heavyweight is someone who lacks a truly signature win at 175.
Then again, that says something about who Ward is, though who we think Ward is is based largely on what we know Ward was and believe he still can be.
Ward was the best super middleweight in the world and one of the best boxers in the entire sport, not just in his own division.
That was largely confined to a three-year period, from the time Ward upset the apple cart at 168 by outboxing and outpointing Mikkel Kessler in 2009 at the beginning of the ?Super Six,? continuing through the tournament with a win over Arthur Abraham in the semifinals and over Carl Froch in the finale in 2001, and ending in 2012 when Chad Dawson, then the champ at 175, drained himself down to Ward?s division and was dispatched in what remains Ward?s most exciting performance to date.
After that came inactivity, whether from injury or due to disagreements with his promoter at the time.
The Dawson fight was Ward?s sole appearance in 2012. There was only one in 2013, 14 months after the last, a victory over undefeated yet unproven contender Edwin Rodriguez. Ward didn?t fight at all in 2014. He fought once in 2015, returning from a 19-month layoff by beating up Paul Smith, who was overmatched, over his best fighting weight and then even further overweight beyond what the contract allowed. Ward was supposed to fight one more time last year but had to pull out with an injury.
