When you are a champion in the sport of boxing, and have gone unbeaten in your career, you are usually a big hit with the fans. But that is not the case with Andre Ward. The light heavyweight champion of the world is 31-0 ahead of his rematch with Sergey Kovalev on Saturday, June 17 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, yet he is far from being a fan boxing lines favorite.
The knock on him, from a fans perspective, is that he does not fight often enough. Mostly because he goes to great lengths to control who he faces next. I’m of the opinion that Ward would be an instant Hall of Famer if he hung up his gloves today and never fought again, but he seems determined to keep going, regardless of what the boxing fans say about him.
Ward is by no means a shoe-in to beat Kovalev again, especially since he was on the brink of defeat in the last fight. Sergey Kovalev came into that bout on an unbeaten run, and had Ward on the canvas in the early going. Ward battle back, though, and used his superior boxing skills to rattle the champ again and again.
The end result was a unanimous decision for Ward, albeit one that couldn’t have been much close. All three judges scored 114-113 in favor of Ward. The margin of error would appear to be very slim for both fighters, but I think Ward is good enough to win again on Saturday night.
Should Ward win, he will then need to make a decision on what he will do with his career. There doesn’t really appear to be another boxer set to mount a serious challenge for the title,. That means that Ward can likely go on with an unblemished record for quite some time, but is that what he wants?
He has mentioned stepping up to heavyweight, but only if the circumstances were right and in his favor. This is a man who is as savvy at business as he is at boxing, which is why an unbeaten career is indeed a possibility.
Analyzing The Andre Ward Boxing Lines To Keep Record Unblemished
The question here, though, is not about his undeniable talent, but whether he will be able to continue unscathed. Andre Ward has not dodged anyone during his career, and has taken out a host of very good former champions along the way. That includes names such as Froch, Abraham, Dawson, Kessler, and Bika all losing to the champ over the years. This Saturday will be the second meeting between these two fighters, with Ward winning the last one back in November. If Ward can get past Kovalev one more time, he will likely have a series of very winnable bouts coming up in this weight class. He can become a very wealthy man during that period, but there have been rumors that Ward may want to step up to the heavyweight division. We will talk more about that in a moment, but for now, let’s take a closer look at the big fight as well as the boxing lines coming up on Saturday night.
Ward is by no means a shoe-in to beat Kovalev again, especially since he was on the brink of defeat in the last fight. Sergey Kovalev came into that bout on an unbeaten run, and had Ward on the canvas in the early going. Ward battle back, though, and used his superior boxing skills to rattle the champ again and again.
The end result was a unanimous decision for Ward, albeit one that couldn’t have been much close. All three judges scored 114-113 in favor of Ward. The margin of error would appear to be very slim for both fighters, but I think Ward is good enough to win again on Saturday night.
Should Ward win, he will then need to make a decision on what he will do with his career. There doesn’t really appear to be another boxer set to mount a serious challenge for the title,. That means that Ward can likely go on with an unblemished record for quite some time, but is that what he wants?
He has mentioned stepping up to heavyweight, but only if the circumstances were right and in his favor. This is a man who is as savvy at business as he is at boxing, which is why an unbeaten career is indeed a possibility.
