Andre Ward kept himself in the pound-for-pound debate with smarts evident all over again this week when he trashed the World Boxing Council with skillful subtlety.
In saying no to a meaningless belt in a prepared statement Monday, Ward saved himself some future sanctioning fees and was rewarded with applause for a demonstration that represented no risk to him. Taking a stand against the WBC these days is little bit like saying you’re opposed to dirty water. Who isn’t?
Besides, what is a WBC Super Middleweight World Champion Emeritus Title anyway? Just a redundancy? Or a gold watch? Retired professors have titles that include emeritus. The unbeaten Ward is neither retired nor emeritus.
Ward is active, which was the real point to a move that was the rhetorical equivalent of former heavyweight champ Riddick Bowe dumping a WBC pea-soup green belt into a garbage can in 1992.
Pound-for-pound ratings are political. A debate, first-and-foremost. There’s not much chance that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will ever face Ward. With Mayweather at welterweight and Ward at super-middle, more than 20 pounds separate them. For now, fans and Showtime will just be happy if Mayweather agrees to fight Canelo Alvarez. To stay in the debate, however, you have to remind everybody you’re still in the game. Inactivity is a sure way to drift out of mind and out of contention.
Shoulder surgery in January limited Ward to only one fight – a victory over Chad Dawson more than eight months ago – since beating Carl Froch in December, 2011. If not emeritus, Ward wasn’t exactly active. Now, he plans to resume his career in September. The timing of his statement to the WBC coincides with his appearance Saturday in London as a ringside analyst for HBO’s telecast of the Froch-Mikkel Kessler rematch. He’s back in the headlines, back in the hunt and poised to re-assert himself in a race with Mayweather for pound-for-pound supremacy.
It’s still not clear who Ward will fight in September. But he has said he eventually wants Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., expected to face Brian Vera on August 3 in Mexico City. Chavez promoter Bob Arum also says he foresees a bout with Ward.
It would be a biggie for both. For Chavez, it’s a chance to resurrect his reputation after haphazard training and a one-sided loss to Sergio Martinez exasperated Mexican fans hoping for a second-coming of his legendary dad. For Ward, it’s a chance to win over Mexican fans, the demographic that can turn a good fighter into a pay-per-view star. To wit: Manny Pacquiao. Without Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao would not have blown up into a worldwide phenomenon.
A Chavez fight in August eliminates a September bout against Ward, although it’s fun to wonder whether Arum might be tempted. If the promoter could talk Chavez out of Vera in August and ask him to go straight to Ward on Sept. 14, he might have a fight that would compete with any Mayweather bout not involving Canelo.
Let’s say there’s a repeat of the Top Rank-Golden Boy rivalry played out last September in Las Vegas with Martinez-Chavez at Thomas & Mack Center and Canelo’s victory over Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand. Which one would you watch? HBO’s Chavez-Ward at Thomas & Mack or Showtime’s Mayweather-Devon Alexander at the MGM Grand?
It’s speculative. Even mythical. Then again, so is the pound-for-pound debate, which Ward brought back by getting back into the headlines.
