Virgil
Hunter in a recent talk had said that his student Andre Ward (31-0 15 KOs) is
still capable of going back down to super middleweight limit of 168.
"Of course he can make 168
- if the money is right. He is still a super middleweight," – Virgil Hunter
Andre Ward,
who currently holds IBF, IBO and WBO light heavyweight belts, hasn’t fought
under 168 since 2013. Ward moved to light heavyweight limit of 175 in early of
2016.
He is
currently working on finalizing a rematch deal with kovalev that will be going
down on June 17th in Las Vegas.
Hunter
revealed that back in 2015, their team reached out to Tom Loeffler (Golovkin’s
promoter) to make a fight between their fighters (Ward-Golovkin).
But per
Virgil Hunter, Tom Loeffler doesn’t have an interest in making the said fight
because their team has already a contract signed to fight Lemieux and was
focused of fighting the winner of Canelo-Cotto bout.
"We have unfinished
business at light heavyweight. I don't know if [Ward will] go back down. But
he's not a light heavyweight; he's still a super middleweight. Time will tell
if we move back down, but there shouldn't be any reason now on
why [Golovkin] won't fight us. I don't think they could use those excuses
again [that they used two years ago]. After we finish with Kovalev, if we
decide to go back down, [we'd fight Golovkin]." - Virgil Hunter
Tom Loeffler
responded to Virgil Hunter’s statement.
“When they were originally
talking about fighting Gennady, that’s when we had the Lemieux fight, that's
when we had the Cotto-Canelo winner in our sights. My response was clear -
if Andre was at 168 we can make that fight. That’s a tremendous match-up now
that Andre’s active again. If Gennady can beat Canelo, that makes that fight
[with Ward] that much more interesting.” “We’ve always said that Gennady could
move up to 168 if it made sense. We tried to make the Chavez fight [at 168]. We
tried to make the Froch fight [at 168]. Now [Gilberto] Ramirez is talking about
fighting Triple G. He’s an undefeated 168 pound champion. Andre Ward, he’s got
the Kovalev rematch. If he can win that one and come back down to 168 - I
think that's a great fight,” – Tom Loeffler
"I think with the
win over Danny Jacobs - it opens up a lot of doors... whether it’s with
Saunders, whether it’s with Canelo, whether it’s with Ramirez, whether it’s
with Ward - depending on what happens in his fight [with Kovalev]. A lot
of doors are open that previously weren’t open, because people didn’t want to
get inside the ring with Gennady." Tom
Loeffler added.
Loeffler admits that Ward is not
the only option; in fact, there are a lot of names to be drawn on their card. That
includes Gilberto Ramirez, also a super middleweight champion. Top Rank’s Bob
Arum wants to stage the match that will be held in Texas.
“…….Ramirez is fighting in April
and Bob has been very proactive in trying to make the fight. I think
that’s a great fight. We’ve always wanted to go to Texas with Gennady. If we
could do a fight with Ramirez in Texas - that’s a tremendous match-up. And
we’ll have to see what the options are. [Chris] Eubank is getting active again
on social media. He's talking about fighting [Golovkin]," - Tom Loeffler
The middleweight threat Gennady
“Triple G” Golovkin is having a great vacation after unifying middleweight
title belts against Daniel Jacobs.
No future opponent has
been announced yet.
Comments
Post a Comment