Fight Club: Kovalev looms on the horizon for Ward

Andy Lewis 08:23 28/03/2016
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  • Andre Ward in action against Sullivan Barrera on Saturday night.

    The former undisputed champion at 168lbs entered the ring on Saturday night for just the second time in 29 months but if he was rusty, it was entirely imperceptible.

    Many had tipped the previously unbeaten Barrera – a top-10 ranked and physically imposing contender – to cause Ward problems.

    But it never materialised with the obvious talent gap insurmountable, and Ward’s canny defensive skills, precise jab and damaging counter-punching earning him a third-round knockdown on his way to a comfortable decision (117-109, 119-109 and 117-108) on the cards.

    The 32-year-old immediately called out Russia’s Sergey Kovalev – the IBF, WBA and WBO world champion sat ringside – as he seeks to make up for all that career-crippling inaction.

    “Sergey Kovalev is a great champion – he’s the man at light-heavyweight,” Ward said afterwards.

    “It’s not a matter of ‘if’ just ‘when’. I’ve been focusing on Sullivan Barrera, I couldn’t think about anything else. There is no second fight, there is no shot at the title if I didn’t handle business tonight, so now I can focus on that.”

    It’s a fight HBO, the network which screens both Ward and Kovalev’s fights, is desperate to make to beef up their anaemic boxing schedule – and Ward’s decisive victory moved it one step closer to reality. The American was once perhaps the most marketable emerging force in the sport and HBO were eager to make him a star, a pay-perview main event staple. But Ward’s imperious 2011 victory over Carl Froch in the final of the ‘Super Six’ super-middleweight tournament and subsequent rout of Chad Dawson seem like a distant memory.

    Injuries and endless litigation with his former promoter, the late Dan Goossen, kept him on the sidelines and all that momentum was eroded by frustration before eventually giving way to apathy.

    His pure boxing style isn’t the easiest sell, so his allure has to be based around the notion of being virtually unbeatable, as was the case with Floyd Mayweather.

    Overcoming Barrera was the first step back in the right direction but Kovalev is a different animal and could present the rare scenario of Ward going into a fight as an underdog. Yet should he devise and execute a gameplan to outfox the destructive Russian, undoubtedly among the most feared fighters in the world, even the most ardent of Ward critics – and there are many – would be silenced.

    Saturday showed both his enduring class and that he has plenty left in the tank. His clean living, athletic prowess and punishment-free resume give him every chance of emulating Mayweather’s longevity.

    Indeed, the recuperative benefits of his hiatus could even have added years to his career. But a fighter’s legacy is determined by the quality of his rivals and those defining fights. Challenges don’t get much bigger than Kovalev and, if made, will be pivotal in how history remembers one of the finest fighters of this generation.

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