American pound for pound great Andre Ward made his long anticipated return to the squared circle last Saturday when he defeated Paul Smith by 9th round stoppage. The bout, which took place in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, was Ward’s first in 19 months. Ward dominated Smith from start to finish, and his victory proves that he should still be considered one of the absolute elite talents in the boxing world, even following his lengthy layoff. Ward hasn’t seemed to have lost a step.
The match between Ward and Smith took place at an agreed upon catch weight of 172 pounds (although Smith missed the mark by almost 4 and a half pounds). Does this catch weight signify a crossroads moment in Ward’s impressive career? While it seems likely he will return to 168, Ward currently has a lot of different options in the 168 and 175 pound weight classes, and while there are many possible opportunities available, there are five distinct names that fans seem most interest in seeing Ward face. Those possible opponents causing uproar among fans include Gennady Golovkin, Artur Beterbiev, Adonis Stevenson, Sergey Kovalev, and a rematch against Carl Froch.
Are any of these 5 fights likely to happen anytime in the foreseeable future? Are any of these guys good enough to beat Andre Ward? Which opponent represents the most difficult match-up for Ward stylistically? Which possible future foe poses the least amount of threat to Ward? Will Andre Ward even wind up ever fighting any or all of these boxers?
This edition of Rummy’s Corner attempts to dissect the answers these questions as pertaining to potential match ups for Ward against Golovkin, Froch, Beterviev, Stevenson, and Kovalev. It also attempts to do much, much more! And hopefully it does.
Check out this video to get one man’s worthless take on the situation.
Watch and enjoy!
