Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward appear to have cleared their impasse for the venue for their November 19 fight. According to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times, the Ward vs. Kovalev fight looks to be headed to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the same venue that the two fighters were originally supposed to be fighting.
This is good news for boxing fans because many of them were starting to think that Ward would look for an excuse to get out of the fight after he failed to show up for Tuesday’s press conference with Kovalev. At least with the venue of the fight being agreed on, the two camps have settled one sticking point in their negotiations.
Now we’ve got to see if the rest of the negotiations can be completed. It would also be nice if Ward shows up for the next press conference, because it’ll look bad if Kovalev is out there all by himself again fielding questions from the boxing media without Ward’s presence. The Ward vs. Kovalev fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view on November 19, so it’s vitally important that Ward show up for the remaining press conferences so that it instills a sense of confidence that the fight will take place.
“The impasse is being broken: Ward-Kovalev to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Nov. 19 looks very likely, according to sources,” said Pugmire on his Twitter. “Still not sure if Ward-Kovalev tickets will be put on sale Friday as planned, however, I’m told. MGM deserves credit for helping mediate the Ward-Kovalev compromise, I’m told.”
Both fighters have done their part in taking tune-up fights. While Kovalev defeated one of the best fighters in the 175lb division on July 11 in Isaac Chilemba, Ward took things easy by fighting 39-year-old super middleweight contender Alexander Brand last Saturday night in a fight that was televised by HBO Boxing.
The fight was not even close to being competitive, as Brand moved around the ring for 12 rounds and looked like he wanted no part of actually fighting. It’s not surprising though, because Brand isn’t even a major player at 168. Ward and his promoters at Roc Nation Sports took a really strange approach to their tune-up by using an old super middleweight as the tune-up opponent rather than a quality fighter from the light heavyweight division.
It had the look for a fight done on the cheap, and that can only hurt Ward because he’s the one that didn’t get a 12 good rounds from that fight. Ward got in 12 rounds, but they weren’t good rounds. It was him stalking a reluctant fighter that appeared only interested in surviving for the entire 12 round fight rather than winning.
The venue for the Ward-Kovalev fight is probably not all that important in terms of the outcome of the fight. Kovalev is going to be on top of Ward for 12 rounds no matter where the fight takes place. It could have been staged in Ward’s hometown at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, and it still would have been a real difficult fight for him.
The crowd wouldn’t keep Kovalev off of Ward and it wouldn’t help Ward move any faster than his 32-year-old legs can carry him. It’s a going to be a fight, and Ward is going to need to figure out how he can deal with the bigger punches and the higher work rate of Kovalev. We’re probably not going to see Ward being any more powerful than he ever has been in the punching power department, and we’re also likely not going to see Ward being able to throw a lot of shots in each round. He’s not that kind of a fighter.
Ward is a calculated boxer, who throws one punch at a time and then looks to either tie up or get out of the way of the return fire. Ward used to move a lot when fighting bigger punchers but he doesn’t appear to be able to do that now at this stage in his career. He can move, but he’s very slow on his feet due to the weight gain from having moved up from the 168lb division. If Ward was younger than he is now, then I think he’d carry the weight a lot better than he is right now, but he’s older, and he’s been a part time fighter since 2012. He also lost two years of his career from 2013 to 2015.
